Accidents Happen
by The Layman
Summary: Spiritual successor to "Distorted Mirror Images". Ruby and Jaune go missing, and their friends spend the morning looking for them. But Spoilers! They find their missing leaders, only...they find more then they bargain for. T for suggestive content and adult situations. #DorkKnight4life
1. Ruby is Missing

"Where the hell is she!?" Weiss groused as she stomped through Beacon's halls, Blake and Yang trying to keep up behind her, "If I have to miss the first class of the day because that dunce fell asleep tinkering with her precious 'sweetheart', then so help me…!" She let out a frustrated sigh in lieu of finishing her thought.

"Is that _really_ so bad?" Yang asked in an attempt to quell the heiress's rage, "I mean, it's _Port's_ class; he'll probably just end up telling some made up story about his time as a Huntsman and act creepy towards the girls." She shivered involuntarily at the memory of Team RWBY's first class with the rather rotund Professor. "And I'm sure there's a good, sensible reason why Ruby wasn't in her bunk this morning."

Blake glanced back at her partner with a raised eyebrow. "...really? _You_?"

Yang thought about trying to refute her partner's unspoken insinuation, but knew that it would be a futile effort; she'd be the first to admit she was more than a little protective of her younger sister, and though she wasn't as openly emotional about the situation as Weiss was right now, she couldn't deny that she _was_ worried about what happened to Ruby last night that caused her absence this morning.

And that she wanted to strangle the little brat for making her worry so much.

Out of love, of course.

"...I'm trying to be optimistic right now, ok?"

"If you say so," Blake shrugged. She turned back to Weiss, "Any word for team JNPR yet?"

"No idea!" Weiss snapped. "They're probably more concerned with their own leader going missing."

Weiss _technically_ had a point; the two teams had run into each other outside their doors, both sans their appointed leaders. They'd agreed to search together to cover more ground, letting the other know their progress occasionally.

They hadn't even covered half the school yet.

"Maybe we're doing this wrong," Blake suggested after a while, "We all know what Ruby likes, so why don't we try looking in the places she'd most likely spend her free time? We might get lucky."

Weiss skidded to an abrupt stop, nearly causing the other two girls to crash into her. She rubbed the bridge if her nose, "Why didn't we do that first?"

"Because you rushed off when she didn't pick up her Scroll," Yang supplied immediately.

Weiss's eyebrow twitched slightly.

"Well then," Blake said to Yang before Weiss could snap at the blond for being right, "you know her the best of all of us, where's she most likely to be?"

Yang folded her arms under her chest, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Well...Ruby likes sweets and fighting, so by that logic she's either in the cafeteria or in one of the practice arenas."

"Then we can eliminate the cafeteria right now, because someone would have asked Ruby where the rest of us are and asked us herself what's taking us so long."

"But there's _dozens_ of practice rooms!" Weiss pointed out, "We can't search all of them before class!"

"Then we have JNPR search half." With renewed vigor Yang sprinted ahead. "Either way, at least we have a plan and we're not running around aimlessly anymore!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

By the time the three girls reached the third practice room (the first two had been empty) they final found a sign of their missing leader, or at least the closest thing to a sign they'd found yet: the "in use" display on the door was lit up.

"Well, this is a good _sign_ , right?" Yang gestured conspicuously to the display.

Weiss groaned. "Is now _really_ the time for your stupid puns?"

"Look, it helps me not get grey hairs thinking about why my baby sister didn't come back last night, ok?"

Blake put a comforting hand on Yang's shoulder. "You're still not off the hook for that."

"Fine, _pun_ ish me later, let's just get my sister!" She shrugged off Blake's hand and grasped the handle, ready to tug it open. If either Blake or Weiss had any thoughts on Yang's second (possibly accidental though not really) pun, they didn't give those thoughts voice.

She hesitated.

"...maybe one of you guys should do it," she let go of the handle, "I'm too nervous."

"Well, I'm not!" Without a second thought Weiss brushed past her, grabbing the handle and giving it a tug.

The door stayed closed, and there was a discordant electronic buzz. Weiss tried again and got the same result.

"It's not working," Blake pointed out.

"Maybe try jiggling it?" Yang threw out.

Weiss suddenly whirled around. "Or maybe you should just punch it down! That's what you're best at, right?" Her nostrils flared as she breathed in and out heavily.

Yang was momentarily taken aback by her friend's intensity. "Whoa! I'm not the one who locked the door, Ice Queen, so don't take this out on me; I'm just as worried about Ruby as you are."

For a moment it looked like Weiss was going to fire off another barbed retort, but thankfully she held it back, letting out a long exhale instead.

"Sorry, I shouldn't take my frustration out on you," she apologized, looking considerably less manic than she had before. "It's just that when I woke up this morning I wasn't expecting find us sans our leader-"

"Uh, Weiss?" Blake tried to interject.

"-running off and missing breakfast to search for her-"

"That one's kinda your fault," Yang pointed out.

"Yang, hey-"

"- _and now_ that we might have found her, the door's locked and we'll probably be marked as tardy as a result of all this, so you can understand why I might be a little on edge."

"Guys!"

" _What?_ " the two asked, finally turning to Blake, who now wore her own frustrated expression.

She continued once she was sure neither girl would interrupt her. "Let's find a teacher, it's going to be faster than anything we can do on our own."

"Hmm," Weiss hummed, "that's...probably true."

"But who do we ask? Because personally, I don't want to try to explain to Mrs. Goodwitch that we lost our leader."

"I'm not sure about Port or Dr. Oobleck either; they're not bad, but I have no idea how they'd react to this. And heaven knows Professor Peach is never around!"

"Why don't we ask Ozpin?" Blake suggested, "if anyone has full access to the school it would be him."

Weiss sighed. "While I don't think that's necessarily a _bad_ idea, how likely do you think is it that the headmaster of the school while take time out of his schedule, which I assume is quite busy, to help some students open a door?"

"More likely than you think," Yang said, now staring down the hallway, pointing at a quickly approaching Ozpin. Weiss and Blake both looked shocked as the headmaster walked up to them, smiling good naturedly.

"Good morning, ladies," he said, "...may I ask why you're here and not in class? I believe there's still time to make it if you don't wish to be late."

"We're aware of that, sir," Weiss sighed. To her credit she managed to compose herself considerably by this point. "Actually, we were looking for our team leader for that very purpose."

"Miss Rose?" His brow furrowed, "I've only had the pleasure of speaking with her a few times, but she never gave the impression of someone tardy." He looked back to Team RWBY, "I take it she's not normally like this?" They all shook their heads.

"Nope," Yang said, "she's usually the one getting the rest of us up."

Blake interjected, "We think she's in there, but for some reason the door's locked and we can get it open. We were hoping you or one of the other teachers could help with that."

"I believe I can, Miss Belladonna." Ozpin reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his Scroll, typing something on the screen. When he was done he held it up to the locking mechanism next to the handle.

There was an unpleasant whine as the lock tried to disengage, only to cease after a few seconds and let out a discordant buzz again.

"Oh my," he exclaimed, "this is concerning…."

That didn't bolster Team RWBY's spirits.

" _What's wrong_?" Weiss nearly growled.

"There lock appears to be jammed, and I'd wager whatever's causing it is on the other side." He drew his Scroll back and began typing out of message, "I'll need to have a custodian look at this. In the meantime you three should head to class, this may take some time."

"With all due respect," Weiss said, "we wouldn't be very good teammates if we just abandoned our leader."

"You just want to strangle her before I can," Yang accused.

Weiss shot her a glare. " _Not now!_ " she hissed.

"You didn't deny it."

" _Yang!_ "

"You'll let us know when it's open?" Blake asked, ignoring her bickering teammates.

He nodded. "Of course. Now you should probably get to class; Port may not seem as strict as Professor Goodwitch, but he has more…creative ways of 'rewarding' latecomers, as a fair warning."

Team RWBY didn't ask what.

"Thanks for the help," Yang said, firmly shaking Ozpin's hand, "Girls, let's head to class!"

As the three headed back towards Professor Port's class, Yang turned to her partner and asked "How'd you know Ozpin was gonna be here?"

"I didn't," Blake corrected, "it just made sense that he'd have the highest access to the school; I'm just as surprised as you are that he showed up."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Try as they might, the majority of team RWBY couldn't help but worry as they waited for news on their errant leader. All throughout Professor Port's lectures ("And _that's_ when I came across the seventh animal to bear the name of 'Edgar'! Once I rescued her from the trap I set, of course; poor thing walked with a limp for a full month after that….") Yang's thoughts floated back to her sister and the room she was most likely locked in.

...OK, she didn't have any definitive _proof_ that's where Ruby was, but she was willing to delude herself about that until proven otherwise!

 _What the heck were you up to last night, sis?_ she wondered, absently nodding along with the rest of the class at something Port said. It wasn't like there where very many things to do around Beacon after hours; the only areas that stayed open to the students were directly connected to the dorms, and everything else was shut down for the night around curfew, unless there were still people using them.

It was entirely possible Ruby just lost track of time while working on Crescent Rose like Weiss suggested. She used to do that all the time back home when they were still going to Signal: Yang would come home late after hanging with friends to find her younger sister sprawled out on top of a bunch of parts, her weapon half disassembled next to her. Then she would usually scoop her up and carry her back to her room and tuck her into bed properly before turning in herself, laying her cloak over her.

It was thoughts like these that made her worry about Ruby all the more. She knew her sister was a prodigy with her weapon and could handle giant Grimm with ease (she'd seen it first hand)...but when it came to fighting hand-to-hand she wasn't the best, which was putting it kindly, and as such there was always a little voice in the back of her mind whenever Ruby was on her own that liked to whisper all the bad things that could happen to her if she wasn't on her guard: robbery, muggings, assault, kidnapping...the thought of her sister being subjected to just those possibilities was enough to give Yang grey hair, and just forget about the darker possibilities that thankfully kept their mouths shut!

It was all she could do to keep herself from imagining Ruby left from dead in an alley somewhere, lying half naked on the ground and covered in blood and-

"Hey, earth to Yang; is anyone home?"

Yang was snapped out of her dismal thoughts when Weiss's face suddenly materialized in her vision, mere inches from her face.

"Wagh!" she exclaimed, "I'm paying attention, I swear!"

The fact that the excuse she reflexively threw out was so weak had the opposite effect she intended.

"Really?" Blake raised a dubious eyebrow, "because Port let class out five minutes ago."

Yang glanced around the auditorium to find they, yes, class was indeed over, only herself, Blake, Weiss, and a couple other student remained in the room now.

Her partner continued, "Also, Port winked in your direction at least three times and you didn't react." At her look of somber realization Blake asked "Still thinking about Ruby?"

"Yeah…." Yang nodded slowly. "It's kinda hard not to right now."

"Then I believe _this_ will cheer you up!" Weiss proudly presented her Scroll, an audio message cued up in the screen. She hit the playback button.

 _#Ladies, this is Professor Ozpin. I've just been informed that Mr. Bragg has almost unjammed the door to that practice room. You may make your way over there if you want, I've informed all the teachers of what's going on.#_

Then it was over.

"I just told JNPR to meet up with us there."

Yang was on her feet in no time. "Then what are we waiting around here for-?"

"You," Blake quickly interjected.

"Let's get going!" She practically tore out of the room, with the monochromed pair following after her.

 _Don't worry, Ruby, soon you'll be safe in my arms as I strangle you with love for making me worry so much!_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"I'm not sure whether to be impressed or horrified at this," Mr. Bragg, Beacon's resident custodian, said as he gestured to the slag that used to be a locking mechanism at one point hanging from its place in the wall, "because this thing is absolutely _totaled_."

"Don't worry," Yang assured him, "it looks like you've got a _handle_ on the situation!"

Weiss smacked her upside the head.

"Really, more door puns?"

"I'm still nervous, OK!"

Blake ignored the byplay and asked the custodian "So you can get the door open now?"

"Once I reroute a couple wires; I needed the power cut to the door so I could work on it."

Blake nodded and stepped back, giving the man space to work. He mumbled a bit as he stuck his hand on the hole, and after about a minute he withdrew it and tapped something on his Scroll.

The "in use" display, which had been dark previously, first blinked white, then turned blue with the words "TEST MODE" scrolling slowly across the screen from right to left.

"...well?" Yang wondered, "Is it open now?"

The man tapped something else on his Scroll and the door slid open, though a bit laboriously.

"You tell me."

Once again, Yang was the first person forward. She was still nervous about what she would find, but by this point she'd rather be shocked than continue stewing over the myriad "what if" possibilities that tormented her thoughts.

The practice room itself wasn't anything spectacular, essentially just an open floor space with bleachers facing that on either side of the door.

Surprisingly, the room was empty.

"...so where is she?" Weiss asked, appearing behind her.

"I don't...I don't know…," Yang said, having a bit of trouble forming words. The room looked utterly deserted, and except for the fact that it was relatively clean and that there was a melted hole right next to the door in the inside there was no sign anyone had been here recently.

"JNPR's here," Blake called as she and the eponymous team joined the other two.

Pyrrha was the first to reach them. "Did you find Jaune?" she asked, her voice heavy with worry.

"Apparently not," Weiss shook her head sadly. "It doesn't look like anyone's-"

"No," Yang interrupted, "she's still here, I know it!"

"Uh, Yang, this room looks more empty than the school during the Vytal Festival. How're you so sure?" Nora asked.

"I don't know, but my big sister senses are telling me that's she's here."

Blake raised an eyebrow, "And if you're imagining it?"

"Then it won't take long to search this place, will it?"

As the rest followed after an almost maniacally determined Yang, Nora turned to Ren and asked "She has Big Sister Senses…?"

Ren, for his part, just shrugged.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

The search was turning out decidedly less successful than Yang was hoping. All the obvious hiding places (behind the bleachers, in the closet) were empty, and whatever windows the room had appeared to locked and untampered with.

Her worry and fear for her sister's safety was quickly getting replaced with frustration at not finding her.

"I'm going to check the changing rooms," Blake announced. "We haven't looked there yet."

Pyrrha immediately ran over to Blake's side. "I'll come with you!"

"Oh?~" A cheeky grin spread over Nora's face. She sidled up to her Mistrali teammate and nudged her with her elbow. "Hoping to catch a peek of Jaune without his shirt on?~"

"N-Nora!"

"Not the time!" Blake snapped as she sent one of her patented glares Nora's way, causing the ginger girl back up cautiously.

While those two were doing that, Yang plopped down on the bleachers, watching her friends disappear through a door on the side of the room that she'd somehow overlooked. Not that you could blame her, she posessed the same single mindedness about Ruby that her sister did when weapons were involved; everything else that didn't fit those narrow parameters was simply deemed "not important".

But more than that, she was angry. Partially at Ruby, and partially at herself for being unable to locate her. It was infuriating, because her usual method of solving problems (I.e. flipping on her Semblance and punching the 'problem' into submission) was basically rendered completely moot in this case. She'd be the first to admit she wasn't the most tactically minded on her team (that'd be Weiss) or the most subtle and cunning (ninja cat partner FTW!); she worked best when someone pointed her in a direction, and without that all she could really do was stew in her thoughts, and those weren't her friends at the moment.

Scenarios starting playing in her mind, none of them happy. They started out as her bashing through hordes of Grimm and human and Faunus goons so she could give Ruby a piece of her mind, which morphed into her tearing said baddies off her sister in desperation, which morphed into her finding Ruby in various situations that explained why she was missing.

None of them were pleasant.

Fortunately, her sure musings were cut short when she heard a "Kyaaaaa!" come from the changing rooms. It didn't sound like Blake's voice, the pitch was too high, which meant it was Pyrrha that screamed.

Yang could only think of two reasons why the "Invincible Girl" from Mistral would scream like that: either she found a spider, or she found a dead body.

And she highly doubted her sister transmorphed into a spider.

She might have shoved past some of her friends in her effort to reach the changing rooms, but right now her mind was only focused on whatever happened to be immediately in front of her and whether or not it would keep her from reaching Ruby sooner, so if she _was_ accidentally rough with any of them she'd apologize later.

The changing rooms were more like one large room separated by a partition rather than fully separate rooms, and upon bursting into the Girl's side of room she skidded to a stop almost instantly; Pyrrha and Blake were blocking the way, standing completely still.

"Hey, what's going on?" she asked, "Did you find Ruby? ...or Jaune?"

Blake slowly turned her head to fade her partner; her yellow eyes were wide with shock. "Both…," she said.

"Then what's the problem?" Yang asked, trying to squeeze past the two girls, "Lemme see my little-"

She immediately understood why her friends were acting like statues once she made it past them.

Firstly, Ruby and Jaune were sitting on the floor of the changing room, alive and apparently none the worse for wear; neither looked dead, neither looked hurt, and neither had guns pointed at their heads. This was all good.

However, that was about where the good news ended in Yang's mind, because once those details were registered, the others painted a potentially more incriminating picture. The most glaring of the details being that Ruby wasn't wearing her cloak like normal, and instead was holding it against herself like that was _all_ she was wearing, with Jaune peeking out from behind her.

Both of their faces were beet red.

 _...they're both naked,_ she noticed, _...why are they naked? Why is_ Ruby _naked?_ _ **Why is my little sister naked with a boy?**_

She knew why. She wished she didn't, but the fact that Ruby, who she'd pretty much raised practically her whole life, her precious baby sister, and Jaune were exhibiting all the classic signs of a couple caught having illicit sex was kind of impossible to ignore.

Needless to say, her eyes turned red and her hair flowed with Aura, small flames licking from it.

Seeing her sister go into rage mode Ruby spoke up. "Yang, I swear, I can explain everythi-"

" _BASTARD_!" the irate blonde screamed, pulling a fist back. Ruby squeaked and scrunched up, waiting for the blow to fall.

However, in hindsight she needn't have worried so much, since Yang's intended target was much more blonde than her sister.

POW!

" _Oof_!"

" _That's for screwing my baby sister!_ "

 _to be continued…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Uh oh, Spaghetti-o's!_

 _...I'm not apologizing for that._

 _Anyway, welcome to my newest project; "Accidents Happen"! It's something of a spiritual successor fic to "Distorted Mirror Images" in that it's going to work off of that timeline...sort of? It's non canon, is what I'm saying. The basic premise is that Ruby and Jaune make "Whoopie" and have to deal with the consequences that result from it. To address the obvious question off the bat, no, **THIS WILL NOT BE SMUT** ; this is more of a thought experiment more than anything else, so if you REALLY want to be perverts then feel free to check out my RWBY erotica fic "Melt". _

_So with that out of the way, I wonder how things are going to proceed from here? (He said, holding the script he just wrote...) The next chapter will be done soon, so be on the lookout for that! (I also do things on YouTube, Twitch, etc, so look for me there!)_


	2. All is revealed

It took the additional intervention of Nora, Ren, and Weiss's glyphs to hold Yang back from pummeling Jaune until she cooled down, and an exhausting five minutes later they were all sitting back in the main room, Ruby still wrapped in her cloak and while Jaune had his shield open to protect what little modesty he could. Pyrrha volunteered to fetch their school uniforms so they'd have actual clothes to wear, though she seemed oddly distant as she left.

"Yang hits pretty hard, doesn't she?" Jaune winced as Ren laid a hand on his face where the punch connected.

"You're lucky your Aura was up when she hit." Ren's hand glowed slightly, "Given how she punches, she might have dislocated your jaw."

"I was _trying_ to do worse," Yang grumbled from under Nora; the hammer weirder had taken it upon herself to keep Yang docile, and so was sitting cross legged on her back.

"Yang, I like you," she said, "but if you'd actually hurt Jaune I would have to break your legs."

"Please no leg breaking!" Ruby pleaded, "I don't want anyone else getting hurt…."

"So what happened last night?" Weiss asked. "And forget about the whole you and Jaune having intercourse thing for a moment, why didn't you try to let us know you were stuck in here?"

"Well…." Ruby's eyes drifted to the floor, "I _maybe_ might've lost my Scroll...possibly…."

"Same with me," Jaune added, "I thought I left mine with my clothes when I took a shower, but those disappeared too."

"Mhmm…," Ruby nodded.

Weiss raised a dubious eyebrow. "So both your clothes and Scrolls just 'magically' disappeared while you were in the shower?"

"It's more likely they were stolen," Blake pointed out, "we should check to see if anyone's turned them in, then we might get an idea of who took them in the first place."

"Which we can't really do until _those two_ -" Weiss pointed directly at the naked teenagers, whose faces flushed again, "get dressed again."

"What I don't get is why Jaune thought it was a good idea to deflower an innocent little girl like Ruby," Nora blurted out, causing Jaune to sputter and cough in shock at his teammate's less than flattering implication, "And I didn't think Ruby knew what sex was, either."

"That makes two of us…," Yang muttered.

Fortunately, Ruby spoke up again, saving Jaune from having to deal with the awkward accusation. "Jaune didn't deflower me!" she exclaimed, before realizing what she just said. "I mean, I guess he kinda did, considering…." She trailed off, then shook her head, starting again. "The point is, Jaune didn't force me to do anything. It wasn't even his idea in the first place, it was mine."

"Which brings us back to the Goliath in the room," Weiss said, "Why were you two having intercourse in the first place?"

Ruby sighed and shifted in her seat. "Well...I guess it all started when I confiscated Blake's filthy book a while back…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

" _Can...I have my book back now?" Blake asked weakly from the floor, rubbing her head where Ruby had whapped her with said book. Ruby herself paid no heed, already stomping towards the door._

" _Later!" she called back. Not because she actually intended on returning the book, of course; such things were not welcome in a school environment, and they did not aid in learning how to hunt and kill the Grimm. What kind of team leader would she be if she allowed such distractions to remain?_

 _No, she was simply too flustered by the filth her teammate apparently kept._

 _Which she was_ totally _going to dispose of!_

 _For realsies!_

 _...she took another peek as she made her way to the nearest public trash receptacle. She'd only read to a certain point before, and that left her curious about where the story was going; would the fearless ninja (with abnormally well defined abs a la Sun Wukong) escape the pit of Succubi he'd been thrown in? What was going on with the fair and curvy princess he pined for? Did the villain hurt her? Was she tied up in her dungeon? Would the ninja and his princess ever say they loved each other? These were questions that needed answering!_

 _That, and the katana in the centerfold was_ really _well drawn…._

 _She snapped the book closed, banishing those thoughts from her mind. This?_ This _is why she needed to get rid this Tome of Evil: it somehow sucked you in with its pretty words and appealing characters…and those exquisite, beautiful wavy patterns on the blade-_

 _She opened the book again,_ just _to take one last look at the katana, passing the trash bins in favor of finding a quiet place to study the beautifully drawn weapon in peace._

" _..._ maaaybe _I'll read some more, too," Ruby decided, "I'll just skip over the dirty parts."_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"I take it you didn't skip over them?" Ren asked.

Ruby, for her part, was finding the floor very interesting as she poked her pointer fingers together. "No…," she admitted sadly.

"Blake," Yang said, glaring at her partner, "I'm going to kill you for corrupting my sister."

Blake rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, looking ashamed.

"But that still doesn't explain how…." Weiss gestured broadly to her partner and the naked young man next to her, "... _this_ happened; people don't just turn into sexual deviants so quickly."

Ruby sighed as she continued the story. "Well, a week or so later…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Ruby and Jaune were sitting in the cafeteria, talking about their favorite comics. The rest of their teams were elsewhere hanging out with Team CFVY, going around to the various boutiques in Vale. Neither team leader thought this was fun, so they opted to stay at Beacon._

 _Jaune was cool, for a boy: he was a little out of his depth- like her -not to mention a teeny bit socially awkward, so she could relate more than them just being classmates. Plus he had a cool weapon, and that was always a good thing in her book._

" _...and that's when X-Ray gets the idea to feed Vav a bunch of beans and hit him with Hilda's Metabolism Accelerator formula, right in his butt, so that the traffic cone he accidentally sat on before turned into a fart cannon!" Jaune said, pantomiming the summary he was giving. Ruby chuckled, imagining the scene._

" _And that worked?" she asked._

 _Jaune nodded. "Yup, The Schnoz went down and the police took him away, and the Floral Society gave the three of them bouquets as thanks." He paused for a beat. "Then X-Ray sneezed and nearly destroyed the prized floral arrangement with his X rays."_

 _Ruby snickered, trying not to snort milk from her nose as she drank._

" _Why haven't I read this yet?" she wondered aloud._

" _I know, right?" Jaune got a wistful gleam in his eyes. "I remember when I picked up my first issue, I've pretty much been a fan since." He absently took a gulp from his can of People Like Grapes soda. "So have you read anything good lately?"_

 _Ruby open her mouth to answer, but suddenly thought better of it and shut it. She'd been about to say that she read Ninjas of Love, but she couldn't very well do_ that _; she'd spent a good twenty minutes thinking of what she'd say to the rest of when they would inevitably ask where she was and what she did after she left to "dispose of" Blake's dirty book, and thankfully her team seemed to buy her excuse. Ever since then she would use the excuse of "I'm heading to the library, there's something I want to research", somehow managing to come up with answers that sounded reasonable and_ not _like she wanted to read porn._

 _She didn't want to think about what would happen if her team found out about this, let alone how Yang of all people would react._

 _...but Jaune was different. If what her sister usually griped about held any weight, he probably already had a secret stash of porn under his mattress, so he'd know why she needed to keep this a secret and couldn't tell her friends._

 _Also the fact that she didn't share a room with him._

" _Well," she toyed around with her milk carton, "it's not really a comic per se...it's...more like a novel…."_

" _Oh? What's it called? Maybe I've heard of it," he said, taking another sip of soda._

" _...'Ninjas of Love'?"_

 _Everything Jaune just drank immediately spewed from his mouth in a mist, and he almost choked._

" _So you've heard of it?" she asked sheepishly, ignoring the droplets of soda now clinging to her face._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Again, I'm _really_ sorry for that," Jaune apologized, "I should have helped clean that up."

"I told you it's fine," Ruby rebuked lightly. She rubbed his arm, "it's my fault for making you spit your soda in the first place." She sent him a tender smile, and he smiled back.

" _Awwwwwwwwe!~"_ Nora cooed, still sitting on Yang, "Don't they just look _adorable_ right now?"

Yang mumbled something very rude about Nora shutting up.

"But that still doesn't explain _this_!" Weiss gestured to the two naked teens again. "When did the two of you start feeling this way about each other?"

"You can keep the book now…," Blake muttered under her breath.

"Hey, Ruby, how about we skip ahead a little?" Jaune asked, to which Ruby nodded her consent.

"Yeah, go ahead."

Jaune nodded in return and turned back to the others. "In answer to Weiss's question, it was during that exotic beach vacation we all went on."

"You people hijacked my trip," Weiss pointed out, tapping her foot irritably.

"Let him talk, Weiss," Blake admonished, "you're getting your answers."

Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, but gestured for Jaune to continue, which he did.

"Anyway, Ruby and I ended up reading the book together after that, long story short, and the night after the big volleyball game we played during the trip…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Jaune was starting to think there was something up with Ruby. Ever since they all got to the Schnee's private beach resort he got the feeling that the young Huntress in training had been trying to get his attention in subtle ways. He didn't really think too much of it before, but during their volleyball game it was harder to ignore, and now it was nearly impossible to take her meaning as anything other than what she said._

" _S-sorry, Ruby, I think I might have something in my ear," he said, using a finger to try and clean his ear out, "Could you repeat that?"_

" _I think I'm in love," she said, slower and more deliberate than the first time, "you know...with_ you _."_

 _Jaune blinked, then blinked again, then rubbed his eyes for good measure. Did...did Ruby Rose just confess to him? Apparently, but it was still hard to believe, considering this was also the girl who apparently was so excited when she got to Beacon because she could see all the new people…'s weapons. She thought boys were "icky", in her own words, and appeared to be completely oblivious to matters of romance._

 _However, with we confession laid bare, a lot of things finally started making sense to him; all the times he caught her blushing for apparently no reason, the fact that she vied to be paired with_ him _over her own teammates when both his team and hers did anything together, sharing her milk with him if he forgot to get any for breakfast, he realized now that it was because, well…she was in love with him._

 _And he couldn't rightly say he didn't feel the same towards her as well. He always thought she was cute, but before now his heart belonged to Weiss. A schoolboy crush, apparently, as he came to terms with that fact that she wasn't reciprocating his advances during the Beacon Dance. He still thought she was a beautiful young woman, he'd be crazy not to, but not to the point where he pined over her anymore. Now though, that spot in his thoughts was occupied by Ruby, and probably had been for a while._

 _For someone a couple years younger than him, she was still an attractive girl. He'd always thought of her like one of his sisters, she acted the part of a younger sibling perfectly, but now though...she was wearing a red, two piece ruffled swimsuit, and, well, she looked amazing in it._

 _He was glad the others were elsewhere at the moment, because he was having a hard time_ not _noticing how good it looked on her, and he knew that both Yang and Weiss would call him a pervert._

" _Um…," he oh so eloquently stated, "I...don't know what to say…. I'm flattered, I guess…."_

 _Ruby blushed a little, putting her arms behind her back and shyly kicking at the sand with her foot. "Well," she gave a little chuckle, "a pretty girl just told you she loves you. I guess that is kind of a big deal…."_

 _Ruby rarely used the word "pretty" to describe anything, and certain never said that about herself, so Jaune could tell she was being serious right now._

" _I guess so…."_

 _He hoped his face wasn't as red as it felt at the moment._

" _You don't have to say you like me back or anything," she continued, "I just wanted to tell you that." Then she leaned in and, slightly hesitant, planted a light kiss on his lips. Her face turned the color of her namesake, and she fidgeted nervously, waiting for Jaune's response._

 _Jaune was waiting for that, too._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"I'm back!" Pyrrha announced as she re-entered the room, holding a small bundle of clothes. "Have I missed anything?"

"Jaune was explaining why he and Ruby were...like how you found them," Weiss explained.

"Oh…." She handed the clothes to the two teens, "Go ahead, Jaune, finish explaining why you and Ruby were having sex."

"Uh...sure…," he said, accepting the clothes, "...but could I maybe put the pants on first? I'm starting to get a little cold."

"Yeah, and I don't want to get my cloak any more sweaty," Ruby added.

"Fine, fine," Weiss sighed, "Just be quick about it; it's bad enough I'm imagining both of you naked, I don't need to _see_ it as well."

Both teens nodded and got up to start changing when Ren grabbed Jaune's shoulders and spun him around so he was facing _away_ from the girls. "Let's give them _some_ privacy while you finish explaining things," he said, before holding a hand out behind him. "May we borrow your cloak?"

"...oh, sure!" Blushing slightly and holding an arm over her chest Ruby handed over her red cloak to Ren, who held it up like a curtain between her and Jaune, and immediately grabbing her underwear from the clothes and quickly slipping them on afterward.

"Thanks, Ren," Jaune said from the other side, an audible "schink" could be heard as he collapsed Crocea Mors' shield. "Anyway," he continued, "after that things were a little awkward between us, but a few days after we got back…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Once again they found themselves alone together, this time in the library. It was mostly deserted, even the librarian was nowhere in sight, and both Jaune and Ruby sat in awkward silence as the clock ticked by._

 _They were supposed to be studying, for the record._

 _Jaune peeked over the top of the book on social economics he was supposed to be reading for Dr. Oobleck's class, not that he was really paying attention to the content, at his "study partner". Ever since Ruby confessed to him and given him that kiss he couldn't stop thinking about his own feelings towards her. He was certainly grateful to her for being nice to him on their first day and considered her one of his best friends...and maybe something more? He always enjoyed spending time with her, talking with her, basically just being around her in general. She helped him work through his troubles with Cardin and even helped him get over his mild obsession with Weiss during the Dance. She was always willing to help, always there for him when he needed to talk, and just an all around cute and personable (and a little bit dorky) girl._

 _But...did he really like her the same way that she liked him?_

 _At the moment she was sitting back with her knees up to her chest, reading a book entitled "The Grimm Encyclopedia". She looked...really cute, honestly, just sitting there with a relaxed look on her face, occasionally twirling a lock of her hair._

 _It took him a full twenty seconds to realize he was staring at her and focus back on his "studies". (There was actually an "X-Ray & Vav" comic behind it.) _

_As he read he thought about what many would consider his other crush: Weiss Schnee. Not to imply that Ruby wasn't still very pretty, Weiss always had more of a regalness to her beauty, which was why he fell for her even though he didn't know who she was. However, it was during the Dance that he realized that he didn't really feel anything for her beyond puppy love, and that her own romantic interests laid elsewhere. At one point he thought there might be something between him and Pyrrha, but nothing apparently ever came of that, so he just dismissed it. Honestly, he thought she acted more like his mother than anything else, and him putting on a dress and dancing with her? Well, she'd helped train him so he actually stood a chance at Beacon, why would he return the favor when she looked so lonely at the Dance?_

 _For some reason he imagined what it would be like if Ruby were in either of those situations, both spurring his proposals for another, and her looking lonely and despondent in the corner while everyone around her had fun._

 _Once again, it took him a long moment to realize how emotional he was getting and snap himself out of it, especially when his mind wondered what he would do if she died somehow._

 _That was something he never wanted to think about._

" _...Jaune?"_

 _He looked up and saw Ruby staring at him._

" _Are you OK? I didn't think economy was so troubling."_

 _He chuckled, grateful for the distraction. "Nah, just thinking about...things." It was such a lame way to dodge the question he almost winced. "W-what about you?" he asked, noticing the slight flush in her cheeks, "There a Grimm was an impressive katana in that book?"_

" _No!" she squeaked, quickly pulling the book into herself._

 _Jaune couldn't help thinking that she looked cute when she was embarrassed._

" _It's, um…," she struggled, before eventually pulling a copy of Ninjas of Love out from behind the textbook. "...I haven't really been studying much…."_

 _He looked down at his own "study material", then put both books face down._

" _Studying's overrated," he declared, moving to sit next to her, "what part are you at?"_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"I swear," Yang said, "I'm gonna find every last copy of that book in Remnant and burn them!"

Nora was still sitting on top of her, for the record.

" _No_!" both Ruby and Blake exclaimed, looking a bit embarrassed afterward.

" _Yaaaang!_ " Ruby whined, "Please!" Shining tears started to well up in her eyes. She and Jaune were in their uniforms, though Jaune still shuffled nervously in his seat.

By this point Yang's anger had lessened a considerable degree, if only because it was hard to flail about and keep your anger going when you had one of your friends literally sitting on you, and now it was weak enough that her sister's teary face was actually having some effect on her.

"... _fine,_ " she relented, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Nora, could you get off me now?"

"Are you going to behave?" Weiss asked, raising a dubious eyebrow, "Because I don't think you want it on your Permanent Record that you assaulted another student unprovoked."

Nora nodded in agreement.

"Yes _Mom_ ," Yang groused, "I'll be on my very best behavior."

"Don't be sarcastic." Despite her annoyance at her teammate's flippant attitude, Weiss gestured to Nora to let Yang get up. Which she did, though she still kept a wary eye on the blonde brawler.

"I'm watching you…!" she warned.

"So what happened next?" Pyrrha asked, seeming a little _too_ at ease given the situation.

Jaune blushed and had trouble lifting his gaze from the floor. "We...read the book together," he answers hesitantly.

Neither of the two teens in question felt like elaborating.

"...how far did you get?" Blake asked, only to shrink back at the sudden glare Yang sent her way.

Thankfully, Ren stepped in before the situation escalated, "Why don't you skip to when you first decided to...do what you did."

"Yeah…," Ruby agreed, playing with the hem of her cloak. "So...about a week ago…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Once Jaune finished choking he looked back up at the petite girl standing on front of him._

" _...what?!" he asked. Surely he was imagining things just now, because there was no way in hell that Ruby Rose just asked him if he wanted to have sex with her, not a bit! She was just...it was utterly impossible!_

" _Not so loud!" she pleaded in a more hushed volume, "It's embarrassing…."_

" _Yeah, no kidding." He quickly looked around to make sure no one was in earshot. "Why do want to do that all of a sudden?"_

 _Ruby shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I've been think about what it actually feels like, if it's anything like how it is in Ninjas of Love."_

 _Jaune couldn't really fault her for that. He'd been wondering that too, though it was more like the ever present nag in the back of his mind whenever he saw a hot girl._

" _And I thought if I_ did _do it, well...I'd want it to be with you." She glanced up at him shyly, a light blush in her cheeks._

 _Oh what do you know, there's that nag again!_

" _And before you ask, I_ have _thought about this before asking you this," she added. "Plus Yang, my dad, and Uncle Qrow all gave me 'the talk', so it's not like I don't know what I'm getting into."_

" _...huh," was his expert opinion on that info dump._

 _He'd initially planned on just straight saying 'no', but now going with the 'yes' option was looking more appealing by the second. In fact, whether she knew it or not, Ruby was categorically dismantling his reasons for saying 'no', which the nagging voice in his mind was quite pleased about._

 _Still, there were a couple good points left that prevented him from instantly agreeing._

" _Are you_ absolutely _sure about this?" he asked, "I mean...this is a big deal; if you do this, you can't take it back."_

 _Now Ruby's faint smile that she wore disappeared into a hard line, and her silvery eyes seemed to transform into hard steel._

" _I know...but I think I'm ready. ...unless you're not! I can wait if you're having second thoughts."_

 _Ruby didn't seem malicious when she backpedaled, and Jaune knew she was being considerate, it was just the kind of person she was...but at the same time it felt a little emasculating that a girl two years younger than him was assuming he wasn't ready to take a big step like this, and the fact that it was an accurate assumption made it sting all the more._

" _If you think you're ready for this, then so am I!" he assured her, mustering all the bravado he could. "I could even do it right now if you wanted!"_

 _Ruby's face turn most the exact color of Pyrrha'a hair, and she bopped her pointer fingers together. "We're, uh, still in the library…."_

" _Oh…." Jaune's bravado immediately deflated upon the realization that they were still in a public place. He might have been [accidentally] goaded into saying yes to Ruby's proposal, but he wasn't ready for the world to see him get his freak on. "Um...we can change locations?"_

 _Ruby chuckled a little. "I was actually kinda thinking we could rent a hotel room in Vale this weekend, that way we won't have to worry about anyone interrupting us." She blushed again, "Sorta like what they did at the beginning of Ninjas of Love?"_

 _Jaune remembered the scene in question, where the Ninja protagonist met up with his mysterious paramour (who would later turn out to be the princess of the Kingdom) in an abandoned shack for a night of passion, right before the main villain's sexy henchwoman showed up and kidnapped the princess._

 _Once again, Ruby was more on top of things than he was, which just made him sad this time._

 _Seeing this, Ruby drew him into a tender hug, whispering "Meet me at the Bullheads before they stop flying for the day tomorrow, and bring some money with you" as she did._

" _Ok," Jaune whispered back._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"I _knew_ you weren't really going to Vale to look for a rare comic book!" Nora exclaimed. "It's as plain as day now!"

"And I _thought_ it was suspicious when you wouldn't tell us _where_ that 'weapons demonstration' was," Weiss added, "I'm honestly ashamed at myself for not calling you out on that."

"You are _so_ grounded, young lady!" Yang seethed.

Blake and Pyrrha said nothing, just sitting quietly as the two teenagers recounted events. Said teenagers also looked quite sheepish at this part of the story.

"...did you use protection?" Ren asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"Of course we did!" Jaune answered, "Ruby practically dragged me into the nearest drug store the second our ride landed."

"I didn't _drag_ you!" Ruby protested, "...it was more of a push, anyway."

"Whatever!" interjected Weiss. "Can we just get on with this?"

"Is it possible to skip to the part where the two of you were locked in here?" Pyrrha asked, finally speaking up again, "I don't think we all want to hear about your first time."

Yang raised a fist in the air, still managing to look angry. "Preach."

"Yeah…," Ruby rubbed the back of her head, "I'm not really sure _how_ to explain it, anyway…."

"Just tell us how you got locked in here," Blake urged gently.

Ruby nodded. "Well, I asked Jaune if he wanted to spar with me yesterday-"

"I said yes because I thought it would be good to practice with someone other than Pyrrha for once. You know, keep myself on my toes."

"That...seems logical," Pyrrha admitted.

"Anyway," Ruby continued, "we fought for a while…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Ruby sighed with contentment as she toweled off her hair after a very satisfying shower. She and Jaune had fought each other for a long, long time, and both decided that they should clean up a bit before heading back to their respective teams. Jaune was on the other side of the changing room, and by the sound of things he'd finished his own shower and was probably doing flexes in the mirror or something equally as dorky. Not that she minded the thought of Jaune flexing, especially after seeing him totally au natural during their first time._

 _Her mind then wandered back to that night and the things that took place. She'd heard that it hurt the first time you had sex, and that had indeed held true for them. Thankfully, Jaune didn't do anything until the pain went away, and afterwards things felt_ much _better. She sighed at the memories; they were something she was going to keep with her for the rest of her life._

"Hey Ruby?" _Jaune called, "_ Did you steal my clothes?"

" _Nope!" she called back, popping the P in nope, "Why?"_

"Cuz I can't find them."

 _This gave her pause; they were supposed to be the only two in this room right now, so how could his clothes have gone missing?_

" _This isn't just you trying to get me to come over there so you can see me naked," she asked, "is it? Because you don't get to do that unless-"_

"No, I _literally_ can't find them!"

" _Where was the last place you saw them?" she asked, parroting the advice her dad often gave, "Start there."_

" _Ruby, my clothes are gone!" he insisted, "_ You should check yours too."

" _Ok, if you say so." Making sure her towel was secure (best not to give accidental peep shows in any case) she headed over to the locker she stowed her combat duds and Sweetheart in. Sure enough, when she opened door only Crescent Rose greeted her. She quickly looked in the other lockers, but that turned up fruitless._

" _Jaune?" she called, now a little concerned, "You don't have my clothes over there with you, do you?"_

"No, why would I? ...and now I can't find my Scroll!"

 _Ruby immediately rechecked all the lockers to find that, yes, her own Scroll was missing too._

" _Ohhhhh no…," Ruby fretted. "Uh, Jaune? ...I think someone took our stuff."_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Thankfully they left my cloak out here, so I'm only going yell at them a little bit." Ruby leaned against Jaune and smiled, "It was sweet how he kept insisting he was fine with a towel and that I should keep it.~"

Jaune blushed. "Well, it _is_ yours, and you kinda needed it more than I did; guys have less of a problem going shirtless, just ask Ren."

"It was one time, and you dragged me out of the bathroom," he corrected, also blushing slightly.

"Forget about that, you stIll haven't explained why the locking mechanism was slagged!" Weiss pointed at the hole next the the entrance, "I highly doubt it was the clothes thieves."

"That...might have been me," Ruby hesitantly admitted, sheepishly bopping her fingers together, "I _may_ have tried to pry the door open with Crescent Rose, and Jaune tried to stop me, and I may have _accidentally_ pulled her trigger while she was pointed at the wall…."

Everyone thought that sounded about right.

After yet another bout of awkward silence, Blake spoke up. "So...what now?" she asked.

"Actually...can we go see if anyone's turned our clothes in yet?" Ruby asked, "It'd be nice if I didn't have to buy a whole new outfit." She looked apprehensive.

"A-and our Scrolls!" Jaune added, "Those too!"

"Ozpin did give us permission to miss class, we might as well," Ren pointed out, nodding.

Ruby's face morphed from apprehensive to perplexed. "How late is it...exactly…?"

" _Too early to be dealing with_ this… _,_ " grumbled Yang.

Weiss pulled out her Scroll. "If we hurry we should be able to make it to the next period on time," she said, showing the two team leaders the display.

Both blanched at how late in the day it was.

"And we can grab a quick lunch on the way, if we split up," Pyrrha suggested.

Both Jaune and Ruby's stomachs gurgled in response.

"Though I suppose it would be more like breakfast for you two, wouldn't it?"

They nodded in stereo.

"Fine, let's go do this." Yang stood up and headed out the door, calling back "And don't think this is over yet, I still have a bunch of words for the both of you!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Despite her assurance that she was done with the punching, Yang was still furious at Jaune for _daring_ to do... _that_ to her baby sister! And she was angry at Ruby too, though she didn't really know why. (She was also a little mad at her partner, but she'd get over that.)

Point was, it was going to be a while before she calmed down and let the matter drop, at best.

She hasn't slowed down once she left the practice room, keeping steadily ahead of the rest of their group as they made their way to the Lost & Found, trying (and failing) not to think about everything her sister and Jaune had just told them. It kept replaying in her mind, which was doing its best to analyze the tiniest detail.

It probably should have been obvious that something was going on between the two teens, given how she would occasionally catch Ruby sigh while looking in Jaune's direction (she'd dismissed it as pure coincidence), blushing when he teased Blake about her porn (she'd assumed Ruby was just uncomfortable with the subject matter, not that it was _un_ true...), taking more care with her appearance...when they were meeting up with JNPR, sitting next to Jaune when they ate lunch, saying she was going to hang out with him for a while at the library, talking about the things they'd discussed….

Honestly, Yang was more than a little mad at herself for not putting the pieces together sooner.

As her mind went through the scene of Ruby and Jaune in the library for the third time, something nagged at her.

"Hey," she said, turning abruptly and grabbing Jaune's arm, "we're going to look for your clothes," and began dragging him away. "You guys get the food."

" _Yang, if you hurt him I'll never forgive you!"_ Ruby called after them. She didn't try to rush after them, however, which Yang was grateful for; people who tried that usually ended up with black eyes, and despite her feelings of betrayal ( _That_ was it; she felt _betrayed_ by what Ruby had done.) she didn't want to physically hurt her sister.

When they were far enough away from the others she stopped and jerked her prey (" _Ack!"_ ) in front of her.

"Ruby's clearly in love with you," she began without waiting for him to recover, "so much so that she wanted to lose her virginity to you, so I'm only going to ask you this once, and if I don't like your answer then you're going learn a whole new meaning of 'suffering'. Understand?"

Jaune nodded mutely; with how much she was glaring into his very soul (or coming as close as humanly possible, at any rate,) Yang was actually a little impressed that he wasn't running away screaming.

Though not impressed enough to quell her fury, however.

"Do you love my sister back?" She continued before he could form a proper answer, "Because if you don't and you're just going to leave her for someone else after doing what you did to her, then it's _your_ job to tell her that and break her heart."

Jaune actually looked aghast at the threat. "Wait, you _want_ Ruby to get her heart broken?"

She shook her head. "No, but I'm guessing you don't either, and that's what you'll have to live with: the crippling guilt. It's worse than anything I can do to you physically." She folded her arms over her chest, "So, do you love her?"

For a moment Jaune said nothing, looking contemplative. His eyes were closed. He took a breath and opened his eyes again, his brown orbs looking directly at Yang's lavender ones.

"Yes," he said resolutely, "I do." He didn't elaborate, but then, he didn't need to; his resolve and assuredness in his answer was plain to see.

"So if Weiss suddenly came to you and told you she'd misjudged you all this time and wanted to do super nasty, freaky sex things with you, you'd tell her no?"

"Uh huh. I'm not in love with Weiss, and I don't think I ever really was in the first place," he explained. "Sure I care about her as a friend, but I care about Ruby as something more."

Yang mulled this over. From what she could tell Jaune seemed completely sincere, no trace of duplicity whatsoever; she'd known so many guys who'd acted just like he was right now, but would flake out if things didn't go to their liking, but in all the time she'd know Jaune and his team he would always follow through with what he said he'd do. (Barring that one time when he tried to ask Weiss to Beacon's dance.) Sure, he had his flaws, but who didn't?

"...you could stand to actually _tell_ Ruby you love her like she does you," Yang said after a short while, "and maybe get her flowers every now and then, too. Girls tend to like that stuff."

Jaune nodded eagerly before adopting a perplexed look. "Wait, does this mean I passed?"

"For now." She cocked her head down the hall, "C'mon, let's see if someone actually did turn your stuff in." She continued down the hall, and Jaune fell into step behind her, now much more relaxed than he'd been all day.

As the pair headed towards the Lost & Found, Yang sent a quick text to Ruby (care of Weiss), saying things were going to be cool with them.

It was barely even 30 seconds later that she got a reply back.

 _#OMGthankyouthankyouxthankyou! 3 meet us in the cafeteria when you're done!#_

Satisfied, Yang tucked her Scroll away and fell into step next to Jaune. There were still a couple of conversations she needed to have with Ruby, as awkward as they were going to be for both of them, but for now she wasn't going to raise any more hell about it, especially since Jaune also cared for her sister.

Plus, it was pretty funny to think that it was actually _Weiss_ that sent the text back, complete with the heart emoji.

 _to be continued…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Well, Yang seems to have come to terms with this, so everything should be smooth sailing from now on, right?_

 _...yeah, and Pyrrha's still alive in Canon._

 _Anyway, this was basically the 'prologue' of the story, setting things up before we get to the meat of what this story will be about. (Which are the consequences losing your virginity and being sexually active, because dangit_ SOMEONE _needs to examine the realistic side of this!_.) _Going forward things are going to be resented in an anthology format, with each chapter focusing on a different consequence of Ruby and Jaune having sex with each other, be it socially of physically, until a certain thing happens somewhere down the road, at which point the content of the chapters will become more sequential. I may have one or two mini arcs in between now and that point, it depends on the subject I decide to explore._

 _To address a couple important/relevant points or order. Firstly,_ **THIS WILL NOT BE SMUT** _. At no point are there going to any scene solely for the purpose of writing about two characters banging; this story is rated T and I aim to keep it that way. If you want to read about "that", I have a story called "Melt", and I'm sure other authors on the site have stories of their own that deal with the act itself. (This will be the last time I address this, so going forward please keep that in mind.)_

 _Secondly, thank you for the great reception this fic has gotten so far! I've heard it compared to another fic with a similar premise called "9 Months to Live", but let me assure you that I have no intention of copying what happens in that, at least not intentionally; it is clearly more of a crack fic, whereas I want "Accidents Happen" to have a more somber tone and be a little more true to life. That's not to say there won't be any humor in it, with a weighty subject matter like this we_ definitely _need a little bit of levity, but for the most part it's going to be grounded in what "reality" is for Remnant. I also might have to do some guesswork as to what the social norms are for the world of RWBY (outside of the "Faunus" issue), so there might be some experimenting on my part with how tertiary characters react and deal with learning about this._

 _Also, screw "Lancaster"; "Dork Knight" is the best RubyxJaune ship name of all time! **OF ALL TIME**_ _ **!** #blamekanye_

 _Now with all that out of the way, all that's left is to see what comes of this revelation. Follow me on Twitter at "the_layman215" for updates on how the next chapter is coming along._


	3. Frustration is Pent Up

**Frustration is Pent Up**

 _Two weeks later…_

Things had pretty much returned to normal after their teams learned about Ruby and Jaune's relationship, though not without its own share of trails. Sneaking away to have some alone time with each other became much more difficult now that their teams knew of it and now watches them more closely. Not that they weren't allowed to sit next to each other or anything, but more often than not one of their friends tag along to "chaperon"; most of the time it was Yang, though every now and then Ren or Weiss would volunteer, and they thankfully gave the two more leeway than Yang did.

And there was also the matter of the urges. Ruby didn't know about Jaune, but ever since that first time she'd had trouble getting thoughts of sex and how all the guys she knew would look without their shirts on, which was _especially_ distracting during Combat classes when people tended to work up a good sweat during the fights. Even when she was just sitting in her room with her team she'd find herself thinking about Jaune and she wanted him to hold her and lay kisses all over her. (She liked kisses, OK? They weren't as icky as she thought they were….) Sometimes she would get this weird feeling in her gut that only served to make the thoughts of her being in Jaune's arm all the more appealing.

She needed to talk about this with someone. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that this...sensation was burning up inside her, and maybe talking about it would help get it out of her system, the only problem with that was it was kind of embarrassing, and after the talk she'd had with Yang the day everyone learned about her and Jaune she'd had trouble bringing the subject up with everyone, which left her with the dilemma of who to actually go to for this?

Yang was immediately out; Ruby could tell her sister wasn't comfortable with this (even though she said she was fine, Ruby knew). Jaune was out too, since he was technically part of the problem and she was just as likely to start making out with him. The rest of Team JNPR wasn't much better: Ren was also a guy, and Nora was just too... _Nora_. Talking to Pyrrha might have been an option if she didn't keep catching the older girl giving her weird looks that made her uncomfortable and guilty for some reason.

Weiss was her partner, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to bring this up with her. After all, she was pretty sure Weiss was still a virgin herself- Yang was always saying the heiress needed to "get laid" seemed a pretty good context clue -and as such wouldn't have the insight she sought. And Blake? She'd tried that already, and….

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

" _Pfffff!" Blake replied, spewing milk all over Ruby's face. This time, however, Ruby came prepared and dabbed her faces with a napkin. (God bless the cafeteria for always having a ready supply handy!) "Uh...sorry about that."_

" _It's okay, I know this is a little sudden…."_

" _It's not that, it's…." Blake's bow appeared to droop a little, "It's not something you're just supposed to ask people."_

" _Oh. I…didn't know." Ruby bopped her fingers together sheepishly. "I mean, since I already brought it up...do you?"_

 _Blake's bow immediately stood erect and her cheeks turned red. "No," she said, "I never get urges." Then she quickly stuffed the remains of her Tuna sandwich in her mouth and stood up from the table. "_ Mai hafta go fee Fun abot fonefing," _And with that she walked, a bit stiffly, towards the cafeteria doors._

 _Ruby just stared after Blake as she receded into the distance. "...so is that a yes?"_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

...Yeah, Blake hadn't been as helpful as she'd hoped.

In the end, she'd decided to try going to Team CFVY. She wasn't that sure this wasn't going to go over just as well as ask Blake had, but she was willing to take that chance. Besides, her only other option was to go to Ms. Goodwitch, and that thought was enough to turn her hair the color of her eyes.

She stood in front of CFVY's door, her hand hovering above the wood. While both her team and CFVY were technically friends, she really only interacted with Velvet with any sort of regularity. Which wasn't to say she didn't like the others, but she was never really able to open up with Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi the way she was able to with Velvet.

Summoning every last bit of courage she had (and hoping her face didn't look as red as it felt) she rapped on the door and waited.

" _...coming!"_ she heard from the other side, followed by the sound of the door being unlocked.

"Hi there, Ruby!" Velvet greeted as she opened the door. She was holding her camera in one hand, "I was just about to go recharge my weapon."

Normally Ruby would have leaped at the opportunity to talk with Velvet about all the different weapons she'd copied for use with her own, but right now she had more pressing concerns.

"That sounds fun, but, um...could I talk with you for a minute? Privately?"

It was plain as day how nervous Ruby was, and Velvet picked up on it immediately. "Sure, come on in." She stepped out of the way to allow Ruby entry. "I'm the only one here right now; Coco dragged Fox off somewhere and Yatsu went along to make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble."

Ruby nodded and took a seat in Velvet's bed; she could tell it belonged to the rabbit Faunus because it was the only bed not in some sort of disarray (" _Huh, kinda like Yang's…."_ ).

"So what did you want to talk about?" Velvet asked. She set her camera down on the nightstand and sat next to Ruby. "Is Weiss complaining about something?"

Ruby shook her head. "No- o mean, she _is_ , but that's not the…." She sighed, not sure how to explain things without sounding gross and perverted.

"...Jaune and I had sex," she blurted, scrunching up a little in embarrassment.

Velvet didn't respond immediately, and in all honesty Ruby wasn't surprised, considering she sort of sprang it on the older girl out of nowhere. Though in fairness to Velvet, she was taking the news better than her friends had initially (not that she could really blame them, either).

"Is that all?" she asked after a while, to which Ruby sighed.

"No…." Poke, poke. "It's more...what happened after- ...what *is* happening afterward." She inhaled.

"... _go on_."

"Well..." Ruby scratched the back of her head nervously. "...have you ever, um...gotten the urge to...um…touch yourself?"

While her expression didn't change, Velvet's face now appeared the same color as Ruby's cloak. "W-w-w-why do you w-want to know?" she asked, suddenly finding a certain patch of wall very interesting.

"Because I don't know who else I can talk to about this, and it's...kinda distracting…." Poke. "Sometimes I have trouble paying attention during class, and at night-" She paused, drawing her cloak around her. "It's…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

" _Mmm...I love you most of all, cake butler…~" Weiss sighed blissfully. She always tended to talk in her sleep, though since it was never more than quiet muttering it was never and trouble to the rest of the team. (Blake didn't seem to mind, and she had the most sensitive hearing of the bunch.)_

 _In the bunk above her, Ruby stared at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep despite the aid of Weiss's gentle murmurs. All day she'd been thinking of Jaune and her 'together', and now those thoughts tormented her with how uncomfortable they made her body feel. It felt like she needed to pee, only she'd used the bathroom before getting into bed._

" _Mmm…!" she moaned as she clenched her legs together. She thought it would relieve some of the discomfort, but no matter how hard she clenched it didn't work; it seemed the issue couldn't be solved so easily._

" _Why am I feeling like this?" she asked to no one, keeping he voice low so she didn't disturb her teammates. She'd been having this "itch" practically all day, with no idea what was causing it. For Combat class and other times when she was moving it wasn't a problem, but whenever she was sitting still it was nearly impossible to think about anything else. Her friends (and one sister who shall remain nameless…) all asked her what was wrong since she seemed more fidgety than usual, and she just with an "I'unno" or "I'm just excited?" since she didn't know herself what was the matter with her._

 _Weiss sleepily mumbled something else, but Ruby didn't catch what it was; it didn't help the problem in her gut, so she didn't care._

 _Finally fed with this, Ruby hopped down from her bunk, taking care to not make noise, and headed into the room's small bathroom. Some self examination was obviously required to get the bottom of this issue, and she didn't want to take the chance that one of her friends (or sister) would, literally, catch her with her pants down._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"...it felt good," Ruby admitted, concluding her anecdote. She'd drawn her legs up against her chest, her head buried in her knees.

"I see…," said Velvet. Her face was still red from being privy to such a personal confession, but whatever was so interesting about the wall was now apparently not as important as the hooded girl sitting next to her.

"And that wasn't the last time I did it either: this morning, when I was in the shower…." She tilted her head up to face the upperclassman directly, "How do people deal with this?"

Velvet thought for a moment, rubbing her chin. "And you and Jaune haven't... _had sex_ since the last time," she asked, "correct?"

Ruby nodded meekly.

"Well, I'm not an expert, but it sounds like your body might now be used to this kind of…'experience' yet."

Ruby looked quizzical. "...how so?"

"Um...sex feels good, right?"

Nod.

"So...because this is new and it makes you feel good, your body wants to feel that way all the time, like…." Velvet snapped her fingers, "Like when you had your first taste of ice cream!"

The analogy seemed to help things click for Ruby, and her crown morphed into a satisfied grin.

"Oh, that makes sense!" Then her expression fell again, "So then how does that help me not be like this all the time?"

Thrown for a loop, Velvet was silent for another moment as she thought of an answer. "...I think- and again, I don't have any experience, this just seems logical to me- I think that if you and he did…'that' again, and you did it on a regular basis- n-not that I want you to become a sexual deviant or anything!- then your body might get used to the time in between, and you won't have these urges all the time!" Her rabbit ears drooped a little. "...does that make sense?"

"...I think so, Ruby said, "it's just like combat practice, right?"

Velvet shrugged, "I guess? If that helps it make more sense."

Ruby nodded emphatically and drew the Faunus girl onto a tight hug. "It does, and thank you so much for talking with me about this! It helps a lot."

"No problem…!" Velvet wheezed, slightly crushed in the surprisingly strong grip of the younger girl.

After a couple more seconds of squeezing Ruby let go and hopped off the bed. "I'll see you later," she called as she headed out the door, waving back, "Can I come by again if I have any other questions?"

Velvet clammed up again. "Um...I think you should find an adult, if that's the case." She poked her fingers together like Ruby usually did, "Like I said, I don't have a lot of experience with... _sex_ and stuff…."

"Oh. Okay then, I guess I'll do that then." Ruby called back one more time, "Thanks again!"

When Ruby was gone Velvet flopped back onto her bed and let out a breath she didn't remember holding. She didn't mind talking to the younger girl, Ruby was usual fun to chat with…but she wasn't prepared for her to ask about something like _this_!

She pulled out her Scroll and keyed in Coco's number; she needed some advice.

The line rang a few times before it connected. " _Hey bun-bun!"_ Coco said on the other end, " _Do you want us to pick you up something? I'm at this_ darling _little boutique right now and I just found the most_ adorable _pair of hot pants that just screams_ you _! I'm having Fox model them right now."_

Maybe this was a mistake….

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"...so I just figured, you know, that I should get a second opinion on this," Jaune admitted; Ruby had come up to him earlier saying "they needed to have sex more often", her words, and proceeded to explain _why_ she said that in the first place. It _sounded_ accurate, but he still figured getting a second opinion would be best before going forward.

Ren placed a hand on his leader's shoulder. "Jaune, you're a good friend...but did we _have_ to talk about this while I'm naked?" He gestured to the pink towel around his waist, the only thing protecting his modesty. "It's kind of awkward."

"...oh."

"Do you mind if I get dressed?" he asked.

" _I_ do," am impishly grinning Nora said.

" _NORA I SAID HEADPHONES ON!"_

"Eep!"

 _to be continued…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Couldn't resist that little callback at the end, there.~ (Also, the scene with Blake. XD)_

 _Anyway, I figured I should probably tackle this subject before too long, just so I could have it out of the way. (Let me tell you, it's "fun" trying to not use crass language to imply someone is masturbating.) Again, rated "T"._

 _Not too much to say about this one, it was mostly spelled out in the chapter itself. Next time things will be a little lighter, and one could even say it's a bit fluffy. Remember, follow me on Twitter for story updates and copious RWBY retweets! (at "the_layman215")_


	4. Puppy Love is Sickening

**Puppy Love is Sickening**

 _One week later…._

"I wonder which one looks better?" Ruby wondered aloud, holding up two outfits in front of a mirror: one was her regular combat outfit that she wore, the other was the outfit she'd worn when her team (plus Sun and Neptune) tried to gather information on the White Fang that one time.

For some reason she was having a harder time than usual picking which one to go with. In just about any other circumstance she'd have grabbed her combat outfit and threw that on without thinking twice, but now that she and Jaune were dating picking between the two sets of clothes suddenly got a million times harder!

And she was supposed to meet him for their date (Pyrrha was their designated chaperon this time) in less than an hour!

"...hey Weiss?" she asked, eyeing her partner in the reflection; Weiss was sitting at the room's desk, apparently writing something down.

"The third one!" the heiress called back, not looking up from her project.

Ruby groaned. "I only have the two outfits, Weiss!"

"No, you have three; I've seen your laundry."

"That one's my _backup_ combat outfit!" she protested. "What are you even _doing_ over there, anyway?"

This caused Weiss to put her pen down and faced her diminutive partner. "If you must know, I'm writing a letter to my sister," she explained, "I promised her I'd give regular updates on my time at Beacon."

Ruby pouted. "Fine, just don't say anything about me and Jaune, that's private!"

"'Jaune and I'," Weiss corrected, "and don't worry; it's bad enough that I know about your sex life, Winter doesn't need that curse as well."

"Thanks, Weiss!" She let Weiss return to her letter, focusing on her own dilemma once again. _Argh, why does this have to be so hard? ...I like my normal clothes better, but what if Jaune thinks they make me look like a little kid? ...but the other one looks_ boring _!_

After another minute of fretting she heard the door to their room open, accompanied by the sound of her sister and Blake's arguing voices.

"I said a was sorry already, you didn't have to _break_ it!"

"It was embarrassing! Why do you even have that thing, anyway?"

"For laughs. *sigh*, now I'm out _another_ thousand Lien…."

"Well it serves you right for pulling it out with so many people around!"

Weiss sighed and put her pen down again. "I know I shouldn't ask, but...why are you two arguing?"

"Blake broke my laser pointer…," Yang pouted, hopping up to her bunk after kicking her boots off. "Now I have to go buy a new one…."

"Again, serves you right." Blake repeated. Before the subject could be dragged on she turned to Ruby and asked "You're not ready yet?"

"No, I can't decide what to wear!" she wailed. She quickly turned around and held each outfit up in front of her. "Which one looks better?"

"...I dunno, they both look good," Blake said after a quick glance.

" _Ugh_! You're no help either!" Now visibly frustrated, she turned to Yang. "Yang, which if these make me look prettier?"

Previously reclining, Yang shot up (hitting her head on the ceiling in the process) and stared at her sister with wide, horrified eyes.

"Who are you and what have you done with Ruby?" she demanded (while rubbing her head).

" _Ya-ang!"_

"Just answer the question, Yang!" Weiss urged, annoyed, "Then I can finish my letter in peace!"

"Why do you suddenly care about looking 'pretty'?" Yang asked, ignoring Weiss, "You never used to care about stuff like this before."

Ruby lowered the outfits, her face becoming rouge. "Because, well...Jaune and _I_ -" she looked directly at Weiss when she said "I", "-are dating now, like, _officially_ , and, well...I just wanna look nice for him."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"...I just don't want her to feel like she's hanging out with a bum, you know?"

Across the hall Jaune was explaining to the rest of his team why he was freaking out about not having any good clothes for their date. Aside from his uniform and his casual/combat outfit his metaphorical closet was quite bare, and he no longer possessed the suit he originally wore to the Dance. (Though for some reason he still had the dress from that night….) He wasn't loaded like Pyrrha was from all her endorsements, nor was he as handy with a needle as Ren was, so _making_ his own clothes was equally out of the question. Not that it really mattered, given how little time was left before he had to meet up with Ruby.

Pyrrha, with whom Jaune was currently baring his soul, nodded once he was done talking. "I see…," she said, looking contemplative. Eventually she spoke up again. "Jaune, how long have you known Ruby?" she asked.

"Since coming here," he answered, "but what does that-"

She held up a finger for him to "shut up for a moment", "And has she ever struck you as the kind of person who would care how another person looks?"

He shook his head. "No, just their weapons."

She put a hand in his shoulder, "Then you don't have to worry. I'm _sure_ the two of will be just...fine…." A dismal expression passed over Pyrrha's face, but it was gone in less than a second. "I mean, it's not as though we're going to a place with a strict dress code or anything, right?"

Jaune didn't respond immediately, instead rubbing the beck if his head and chuckling nervously.

"Um, well…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

" _Gavino's?!"_ Yang, Blake and Weiss exclaimed in unison as Ruby sheepishly poking her fingers together.

"Yeah…."

"How in the name of Remnant did _Jaune_ of all people get a reservation at Gavino's?" Weiss demanded, "Even _my_ family's on the waiting list for that place!"

"Well, the Arcs _are_ pretty famous Huntsmen…," Yang mused.

"Are you sure he didn't mean _El Pizza Bandito's_ instead?" asked Blake.

Ruby shook her head. "Nope, he showed me a menu and everything; that's the other reason I can't decide what to wear."

Slamming her pen down Weiss stood up and grabbed the outfits from Ruby, tossing them on her bunk before heading over to the room's closet.

"Be careful!" the young Huntress wailed, diving after her clothes, "These are the only clothes I have here!"

"No, you have something else," Weiss reminded her partner, pulling out the red dress Ruby wore to the Dance and handing it to her, "this is the most appropriate thing thing you own if you're going to Gavino's." She then dug out a pair of high heeled shoes.

"But I _hate_ wearing those stupid lady stilts!" she whined.

"It's for your own good!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Pyrrha, I can't let you do this!" Jaune protested as his partner attempted to drag him out the door, "It's too much!"

"You need a suit," she insisted, "or else they won't let you in!"

"Yeah, but-"

"Jaune, I've been to Gavino's before; if you don't want to disappoint Ruby, you'll let me buy you a suit."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"But I don't _want_ to!" whined Ruby as Yang and Blake held her down so Weiss could put the heels on her, "They _su-u-uck!_ "

"It's the price you have pay for going to such a prestigious restaurant." Weiss managed to shove one of Ruby's feet into the shoes and started to work on the other. "You'll be sitting most of the time, so just put up with it."

Unsurprisingly, this didn't cause Ruby to struggle any less.

"It's only for the evening, right? So stop being a dunce and-"

"You love Jaune, right?" Yang asked, interrupting Weiss in the process.

Ruby stopped struggling for a moment and gave her sister a confused look. "Yeah," she nodded, "I told him that yesterday when he gave me those flowers."

A satisfied grin. "So then how much do you think he loves you if he went through the trouble of getting dinner reservations at Gavino's on such short notice?"

Ruby thought for a minute. She'd heard tales of how difficult it was to eat at Gavino's, and if _Weiss_ said her family had trouble getting reservations there then there must be some truth to those stories.

Which, now that she thought about it, made it all the more miraculous that Jaune had been able to get them at all!

"...a lot."

Yang nodded. "So don't you think you should put up with the shoes and enjoy yourself tonight? I'm sure Jaune would appreciate it if you had a good time, especially since he went through all the trouble to set this up."

He probably would….

"Yeah, you're right," the 15 year old girl relented, "... _fine_ , I'll wear the stupid shoes…."

"Atta girl!" Yang patted Ruby on the shoulder, "You'll have a great time, trust me!"

"Still though, we need to do something about your face," Weiss mused, finally getting the other shoe in her team leader. She rubbed her chin for a minute before snapping her fingers. "Blake, get me your make up kit!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"What's the big deal?" protested Jaune, "I could just borrow something from Neptune or someone."

Pyrrha groaned in frustration. "It's a 'big deal' because-" She stopped abruptly. "...because I want to pay you back for what you did for me at the Dance."

This actually gave Jaune pause as he blinked in surprise. "But...I was returning the favor to _you_ then."

"I know, but you were the only person there who asked me to dance. ... _not to mention everything else you've done for me…._ " She whispered the last bit.

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Never mind!" She quickly composed herself, "Anyway, consider us even after this."

Right after Pyrrha said this, and before Jaune could respond, there was a knock at the door.

" _Jaune, you ready yet_?" came Ruby's voice from the other side, " _Don't we have to be at the restaurant soon?_ "

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"So, um…," Jaune stammered as he and Ruby sat at their reserved table at Gavino's; Pyrrha wasn't able to join them because the reservations were only made for a party of two, so she decided to spend time window shopping until the two young lovers were done with their meal. In the meantime, they were mostly fidgeting uncomfortably in the oppressively fancy atmosphere of the place. "...you look nice."

Ruby blushed. "Um...thanks…." Weiss had done a complete number on her; in addition to her dress from the Dance she wore her cloak around her neck like a scarf, with Yang's purple pendant necklace sticking out from underneath and a brooch of her symbol clipped on the side. Her face had more makeup on than she'd ever worn before, most noticeable on her cheeks and around her silver eyes where they were outlined in mascara. It made her look a good couple years older than she actually was, as well as "fine", as Yang put it. "I had some help…."

"Cool…."

Aside from how they marveled at the place when they first arrived, Jaune couldn't think of anything to say. Normally he'd talk with Ruby about comics and stuff, but for some reason that felt taboo in somewhere so high class, which left very few avenues of conversation left to him.

"Your suit looks nice, too," Ruby said, "Good thing Pyrrha had us stop by the rental place first, huh?"

"Yeah; I don't want to think about what I'd say to my parents if we were turned away at the door." He twiddled his thumbs. "They uh...say they want to meet you."

"Oh. …did you tell them about…?"

"I kinda had to, it's why my parents reserved this for us." Now it was Jaune's turn to blush. "My mom wants grand kids now..."

Ruby blushed even harder.

"I still haven't told my dad about this yet," she admitted, "He's kind of... _obsessively protective_."

Jaune gulped.

"...really?"

"Oh yeah," she nodded, "he once chased some boy halfway across Patch because he caught him making out with Yang."

Jaune was speechless. He was worried about Ruby's dad finding out what happened between the two of them, and now he was mentally preparing his last will and testament for when Taiyang Xiao-Long found he'd stolen his daughter's virginity.

Fortunately the wait staff chose that moment to bring their food over, thankfully saving him from contemplating exactly _how_ the man would pummel him into the ground. A man in an impressive chef's hat walked up to their table, followed by two waiters each pushing a trolley with covered platters on them.

" _Monsieur, Madame_ ," he said, addressing Ruby and Jaune. He then snapped his fingers and the two waiters maneuvered next to them. He then turned to Ruby, "For you, Madame, the _finest_ _linguini puttanesca_ , with freshly grown vegetables, and top grade Tuna for that _extra_ bit of flavor. Plus a _dash_ of cheese." The accompanying waiter lifted the cover, revealing the dish in question.

For some reason, despite it being what she ordered, Ruby suddenly felt sick to her stomach once the smell reached her.

"And for Monsieur-" the other cover was lifted, "- _spaghetti_ noodles and 100 percent grade A beef meatballs, topped with a succulent, spicy tomato sauce, and a sharp cheese garnish. I take it you're one who appreciates the classics?"

While Jaune was acting bashful from the (perceived) praise, Ruby was fighting to keep her stomach from turning over. She didn't know why, but there was just something about the smell of her and Jaune's meals mixing together was too much for her senses; it was the grossest, wettest, most unpleasant thing she ever remembered smelling before, even worse than her dad's dirty laundry, and in no time it proved too much for her to handle.

"Um...where's the bathroom?" she asked, groaning a little. The chef raised an eyebrow.

"It's that way," he gestured, "why?"

"Thanks!" Moving so quickly she might as well have been using her semblance Ruby leaped out of her chair and rushed in the direction the chef indicated, bumping into the other tables once or twice before disappearing behind a door that said "Restroom".

The chef glanced back at Jaune, who chuckled nervously.

"Eh heh...must have been something she ate?"

 _to be continued…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Told ya this one would be fluffy. Also, the heck did Ruby eat earlier? Questions for another time, I guess._

 _Anyway, I wonder how Pyrrha feels about all this? I mean, she_ seemed _fine with Jaune taking Ruby on a date to a fancy restaurant, and she even got him a nice suit_ _for the occasion! Yeah, I think she'll be fine!_

 _S_ _o Teams RWBY and JNPR know about Jaune and Ruby, and at least Velvet knows...what about the rest of the school? We'll find that out next time. Until then, follow me on Twitter (at "the_layman215") for updates, RWBY retweets, and other fun stuff!_


	5. Reputation is Spreading

**Reputation is Spreading**

 _The next day…._

"Ruby, you don't have to keep apologizing," Jaune insisted as the two of them headed to class the next day, "I'm not mad or anything. ...at least they let us take the food with us. That's something, right?"

"Yeah, but I still got us kicked out…." Ruby kicked the ground with her toe as they walked. "I ruined everything…."

"You didn't ruin anything," the blonde Huntsman-in-training assured her, giving her a quick squeeze around the shoulders, "Though _I_ probably made things worse by arguing with the chef about the spaghetti and meatballs."

Ruby chuckled a little. "It _was_ a little funny when you slammed your fist down on the plate and sauce splattered on the chef's face!"

All Jaune could do was chuckle sheepishly and blush at the memory. "Not one of my brightest ideas…."

They walked for a little while longer, making small talk, before Jaune stopped in front a door.

"Well, this is my stop," he said, "...see you at lunch?"

"Sure!" She continued off before quickly turning and rushing back. Propping herself up with her toes Ruby planted a light peck on Jaune's cheek. "I'll pick our food this time, OK?" And with that she ran off again.

 _I wonder what they'll have for lunch today?_ she wondered as she walked, _No offense to Blake, but I hope it's not tuna; I actually wanna keep my stomach where it is today. Maybe pizza? ...no, I hope it's not, I don't know if I can handle that's if it's too saucy. Maybe...I wonder if they'll take requests?_

She was so preoccupied with thoughts of finding a lunch that wouldn't send her running for the nearest trash can that she didn't notice she was on a collision course with another student until they'd already collided.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry!" the student apologized immediately, "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, waving dismissively, "I should have been watching where I was going…."

"No, I should have-" Then their eyes lit up in recognition. "Wait a sec, you're Ruby Rose, aren't you?"

"Uh, last I checked." She gave the student a quick once over. "Do I know you?"

"No," they said, shaking their head, "but it's kinda hard not to at least hear about you; getting into Beacon two years early and getting made a team leader is a pretty big accomplishment."

Ruby blushed. "I guess I'm just lucky…."

"Yeah ' _lucky_ '." The student used air quotes. "So, I don't suppose you'd mind showing me some of that 'luck', would you?"

"I'm...sorry?" she said, cocking her head to the side.

"I mean, I'm sure you know how to fight and everything...but _come on_ , no one just gets bumped up two years 'just because'!" Air quotes again. "There _had_ to to be some favors exchanged."

It took a minute for it to click in Ruby's mind what this student meant, and she didn't like what they were implying.

"Maybe I'm being too vague," they said after a minute, "so I'll just come out and say it; I want you to give me a blowjob."

"... _WHAT!?_ "

"Not right now, obviously, we can find an empty bathroom or something first."

Ruby was stunned. Was this person actually asking her what she thought they were? Apparently, because they had this cocky, self assured expression in their face after they recognized her; she hadn't thought much of it at first, but now it was clear why they wore it.

Even though they a mere inch or two on her in height, she suddenly felt very small standing next to this person.

"U-um, I need to get to class-" she stammered before an arm slammed into the wall next to her, cutting off her escape.

"No need to play coy, Rose, I know you're screwing that Arc guy; it's obvious you don't have any standards." They leaned in closer, placing their other arm in the wall, "Don't you think I'm a step up from him?"

Every fiber of Ruby's being was telling her to run, but with her escape blocked in both directions there wasn't anywhere she could go, not to mention the downright predatory vibes this student was exuding were playing havoc with her reasoning, causing it to shrink back in fright.

The student licked their lips, sending unpleasant shivers down her spine.

On instinct she bright her knee up, right into their groin, and with a yelp of pain the student crumpled to the ground, clutching the area of impact as they fought back tears.

Ruby bolted, not wasting any time in putting distance between her and her assailant; she only barely heard them shout "You _bitch_!" as she ran.

As she headed towards class there was one question that stood out in her mind, and it didn't have anything to do with the faulty logic the student was operating under.

 _Why did he know about me and Jaune?_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

" _Why didn't you tell us sooner!"_ her friends exclaimed at Ruby as they sat around the lunch table.

"I don't know!" she wailed, "It was weird and I was confused!"

"I assume you at least told a teacher about this?" Weiss asked, "I wasn't going to say anything earlier, but it was weird to see you walk into Professor Port's class when it was already half over."

Ruby nodded. "I passed Ms. Goodwitch on the way, she said she'd take care if this personally."

"Well, that's a relief."

"They're probably only gonna get detention for this," Yang pointed out, angrily crewing on her lunch, "which is less than they deserve for trying to do _that_ to my baby sister!"

Ruby mumbled " _I'm not a baby anymore…"_ under her breath.

"You sure you don't want us to break his legs?" Nora leaned in conspiratorially, "Cuz it _really_ isn't and trouble…."

"Nora…." Ren placed a hand on his partner's shoulder, gently pulling her back.

Pyrrha then spoke up. "You said this person knew about you and Jaune, right?"

"Uh huh!" Ruby nodded emphatically. "But I haven't told anyone about us except for you guys, so how did they hear about it?" She looked pleadingly at her friends, hoping for answers.

"Don't look at me," Yang said, "I haven't been blabbing about Ruby's sex life-"

Ruby immediately threw her hands over her older sister's mouth, quickly turning the color of her namesake.

"I haven't said anything either," Weiss admitted, "I think I've made my feelings on even just thinking about _that_ well known by this point." She narrowed her eyes at Jaune, "You haven't been bragging about this, have you?"

He spit out the milk he was drinking. "Of course not! I don't want people making a big deal about this just as much as Ruby does!" He wrapped an arm around the younger girl protectively.

"Nora and I haven't told anyone," Ren said, speaking for the two of them, "not that we didn't have a few close calls…."

"I wasn't gonna _say_ anything!" Nora protested, "Geez, you try to find someone your leader can talk with about 'that' with…."

Pyrrha chose this moment to step and keep things on track. "I haven't spoken of this with anyone," she admitted. Then she glanced over at Blake, "Have you told anyone?"

Blake shook her head. "No," was all she said. The ardent look in her eyes told her that the Faunus was serious about her answer, so she let it drop.

"So no one said anything…," Weiss mused. "Maybe they saw you and Jaune together and just got the wrong idea?"

"Maybe…." Ruby nodded. It sounded plausible, especially in light everyone's silence on the matter...but she couldn't help thinking that the student who accosted her had to have heard and her and Jaune from _somewhere_ , and that source might have informed other people as well. "You sure?"

"No, but that's the most likely explanation given that none of us have mentioned this outside of this group."

For some reason, it wasn't until Weiss reiterated that "fact" that Ruby remembered a conversation she has a while ago.

She didn't remember _explicitly_ telling Velvet not to say anything to anyone else before she left….

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Ha- _chee_!" Velvet sneezed, grabbing a napkin to dab her nose with.

"Too much pepper?" Yatsuhashi asked. Team CFVY was sitting together on the other side of the cafeteria, enjoying a well deserved lunch after a particularly grueling Combat class.

"Maybe a little…."

"Yatsu darling," Coco said, "not that I don't appreciate you making lunches for us, but…." She gestured to the boxed lunches in front of them, which had a visible layer of black pepper over the top of the food. "Maybe next time hold back on the seasoning?" Next to her Fox took a bite of one of the sushi rolls in his own box and nearly gagged it back up, immediately reaching for his drink.

"Sorry; first time making this." The giant Huntsman popped a bit of sashimi in his mouth, his eyes briefly going wide before he managed to swallow the food. "...I see your point."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Later…_

Ruby was sitting in the library, reading the next book in the Ninjas of Love series; this one introduced a different protagonist (a girl this time) and took place in a different part of the world. She'd needed something to take her mind off of worrying about what happened earlier, and this seemed to do the trick.

She snickered at a particular passage. "You crazy Hikari, that's not how Aura works!"

"These books are kinda bad, aren't they?" Jaune commented. He was reading over her shoulder as she reclined against his chest.

"I guess." She read a few more paragraphs before an unpleasant thought struck her. "...hey Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"So...let's say that, _hypothetically_ , if I didn't exactly get into Beacon honestly...would you still love me?" She fought to keep from cringing at what the answer might be.

Jaune blinked in surprise, looking a little guilty. "How _exactly_ do you mean?" he asked.

"Like, having sexy with someone so I could get into Beacon early?" she answered hesitantly. When he didn't answer immediately she expounded, "The way that person said it earlier...I don't know, they made it sound dirty. And then I thought, maybe...would you still feel the way you do about me if I did something like that?"

After a moment of agonizing silence Jaune let out a breath.

 _Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod…!_

"Ruby," Jaune said, "you could have slept around with everyone on the planet and I'd still love you. I mean, we're together now, right? No one else matters." He kissed the top of her head.

Well...it _technically_ wasn't the answer she was dreading, but it wasn't the one she wanted, either.

"No…," she protested, immediately backpedaling. "I mean thanks, that's sweet, but I meant _specifically_ if I did that to get into the school."

"Oh." He was silent for another moment. "Well, would you still like me if I got in dishonestly?"

She pouted. "Jaune, I asked you first-"

"Because I faked my transcripts to get in. I never attended a combat school, I never got any formal training...I cheated my way in."

This actually gave Ruby pause. She'd always assumed that everyone who got accepted to a Huntsmen Academy did so because they'd been to a combat school first and met the requirements for admission; it had never dawned on her that anyone would try to cheat their way in, least of all one of her best friends. Sure, Jaune might've been a little clumsy when she first met him, and he didn't really know how the school worked, and he hadn't unlocked his Aura yet (and apparently didn't even know what Aura _was_ ), and was worse than her at both academics _and_ fighting….

Now that she thought about it, it _did_ make sense that he hadn't gotten accepted into Beacon the normal way.

"I'm not proud of doing it, and it almost cost me a bunch good friends," he continued, "but I wouldn't change that if I could, because then I wouldn't have met all of you guys and got the best girlfriend in the world!" He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her waist. "So do you really think I'm in a position to judge someone else for something like that?"

When he put it that way, Ruby could help but feeling immensely relieved, her heart all a flutter at the thought that he'd always love her, no matter what! She turned her head and planted a kiss right in the corner of mouth.

"And that's why I love you.~" She rested her head in the crook of his neck. "So...does anyone else know?"

Jaune shook his head. "I only told Pyrrha, hence why she's been training me, and Cardin knows. ...that one was an accident, heh heh…." Be rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh, ok," she said right as something clicked in her mind, "so that's why you were his stooge for a while."

"Unfortunately…."

She turned around on his lap- "Don't worry, I still think you're more awesome than he is." -and kissed him deeply, which he eagerly reciprocated, leading to a heavy make out session.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

On the other side of the building, outside of a rather nondescript classroom, stood Nora and Yang, both leaning against the wall on opposite sides of the door; after classes we're over for the day they'd made plans to confront the student who tried to accost Ruby, and had been waiting for the last twenty minutes for them to be let out of detention.

 _How much longer?_ Yang wondered, checking the time in her Scroll. It felt like the two of them had been waiting for hours, and it didn't help matters that neither girl knew exactly when the student in question had reported here. As such, they'd opted to hang around on the off chance they only had to wait a few minutes.

Her Scroll's display blinked from 18:55 to 18:56.

" _Ugh!_ " She roughly tucked the device back in her pocket and let her head fall back against the wall.

"I'm _boooooored_!" whined Nora, slouching, "When're they gonna come _oooooout_?"

"Hopefully soon, it's almost 7:00." The blonde let out a sigh, "At this point I just want to get it over with." Quickly wracking her brain for something to talk about, Yang turned towards the hammer wielding ginger next to her. "So," she asked, "you seem pretty OK about Ruby and Jaune being…." She tried to come up with a better term than "friends with benefits". "...in a physical relationship with each other."

"Well, yeah," she said, her tone implying that this was obvious, "I mean, they both love each other, and they both know what happens when they boop and take precautions, so why not be happy for them?"

"'Why not be happy for them?'" That phrase had gotten tossed Yang's way a lot in the past few weeks. It wasn't that she _despised_ the fact that her little sister was sexually active, but it was _extremely_ hard to look past when that same little sister thought that a stork brought babies until she was twelve, and had gagged at the mere thought of locking lips with someone. It hadn't even been a month yet, but given a large enough chunk of time where she _wasn't_ constantly reminded that Ruby had now officially entered Womanhood she might be able to come to terms with it.

In the meantime, she could have a little fun to take her mind off of 'that'.

"Does that mean that you and Ren ever…'booped'?"

Nora coughed, as though choking on something. "Pfff, what? _No_ , of course not!" She pokes the tips of her fingers together. "Ren and I aren't ' _together_ together', not at all! Heh heh heh…." Then she slowly turned to meet Yang's gaze. "...why, did he say something about that?"

Before Yang could say anything else (and see how much she could get Nora to reveal) the door opened and their prey emerged, stretching their arms over their head as they headed down the hall, apparently not noticing the girls as they passed.

Yang cocked her head towards the student and Nora nodded resolutely, both of them leaving their posts and following after them.

"Hey!" Yang called after a while, "Wait up!"

The student stopped and turned around, their face lighting up a once they saw who was trying to get their attention. "Oh hey! ...Yang Xiao-Long, right?"

" _And_ Nora!" Nora said, popping out from behind Yang.

"Got it in one! Glad it didn't take you _Xiao-Long_ to remember me!" She gave the student finger guns.

"Hi." They gave Nora a brief wave before focusing on Yang again. "So what can I do for you?"

"Well...Nora and I were thinking about doing something where we get all hot and sweaty and we were hoping you could join us."

The student blinked three times. "...come again?"

Nora chimed in at this point. "Yeah, we were just gonna do it by ourselves, but there's only so much you can do with two people on their own."

"So wadaya say, wanna join us? I promise you won't know what hit you."

The student looked between Yang and Nora, their expression quizzical. After ten seconds of indecision a smile crept onto their face. "You know what? Sure, I'll join you; I got blue balled by the bitch in the red hood earlier- no offense to your team leader- so this'll be a good way to drain some of this frustration."

Their participation assured, Yang and Nora each slung an arm over the student's shoulders as they lead them off.

"Trust us, we'll give you an experience you're _never_ forget!"

 _to be continued…_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Welp, that happened. Good thing Ruby thought to attack the weak point for massive damage, or else things might've gotten bad._

 _Anyhow, this was interesting to write; considering how uncomfortable this kind of situation can be I didn't want to go for too long and risk a slog to get through, but on the other hand it isn't in Ruby's character to wholesale shut someone down immediately if they tried this like Yang would. I'm not entirely satisfied with how that scene ultimately turned out, but not so much that I want to add anything to it._

 _You know...to my knowledge, Jaune never admits he faked his way into Beacon to anyone other than Pyrrha that one time. (Cardin was just eavesdropping, recall.) It's never really brought up again in the show, and it made sense that he'd bring it up to cheer up his girlfriend. He's a sweety like that._

 _Also, what the heck are Yang and Nora up to?_

 _See you guys next time! Follow my Tweeter (at "the_layman215") for fanfic updates and copious RWBY retweets, and my stop by my Twitch channel (link on Tweeter) and throw some support at me there._


	6. Nausea is Debilitating

_aIlovemetoo (Guest): Don't worry, I haven't forgotten what Ruby's like in the show; there are things happening behind the scenes that none of the characters are fully aware of yet, but in a few chapters things should become clear._

 _As for the example you cited, Ruby was still oblivious that the goon was actually robbing her until he said so, and until the events of Volume 3 she was still fairly naïve. Plus, in Volume 2, we see that she's not as adept at unarmed concert as others, so it's not as unthinkable that Ruby would be a little flustered in that kind of situation. Trust me, I'm working towards something._

 _Also, over 100 favs now! Anyway, back to the story._

 **Nausea is Debilitating**

 _One week later…._

"Um...thanks?" Ruby said as the student that previously harassed her now handed her back her books and scurried off, leaving the fifteen year old girl more than a little dumbfounded. It was still a nice gesture, even if it was kind of random.

"You're _sure_ that they're the one who harassed you?" Weiss questioned.

"Yeah." Ruby gave a shrug, "I guess they're really sorry?"

"Let's hope so…." Weiss narrowed her eyes as the student disappeared down the hall in the opposite direction, "For the record, I still think it's weird that they've been so nice all week after what they pulled."

"You worry too much," Yang dismissed, already heading into their next class, "just be glad Ruby isn't getting propositioned anymore."

"And I still think you had something to do with this, Xiao-Long!"

"You still won't say where you and Nora went that day," Blake pointed out.

"Pff, _details_! Now come on, or Oobleck will force us to participate!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

The day passed without too much trouble (Port's class was boring, but thankfully he didn't ask anyone to help participate in an object lesson) and eventually the four girls made their way to the cafeteria for lunch.

"So what do you guys wanna do on our next day off?" Yang asked as the group stood in line for their food, "Personally, I think we should go see the new Spruce Willis movie that just came out; it looks like it's gonna be _awesome_!"

"I'm not really a fan of action movies," Blake said as she grabbed a carton of milk. "If we're going to see a movie, I'd rather see that documentary about-"

" _Boring_! Why watch people talk about stiff when you can see disgruntled cop Jim McBain kicking but and playing by his own rules?"

"Because I don't like _mindless_ entertainment."

"You're _both_ wrong!" Weiss interjected, "We should _obviously_ see 'Shades of the Heart'." She grabbed a small bowl of ice cream. "You lot could stand to get some culture in you."

Yang and Blake both gave the heiress thumbs down.

"Romance movies are stupid and unrealistic."

"Not my cup of tea."

Weiss raised an eyebrow, grinning. "It's based off of a book and stars Feline Dion in the lead."

Blake's bow twitched at the mention of the Faunus actress and she shiftily glanced to the side. "Well...maybe we can give it a try this once…."

Almost immediately Yang back away from her partner, an exaggerated look of betrayal plastered on her face. "Blake, how could you do this to me? _Me_ , your own flesh and blood?"

"We're not related," she quickly pointed out, reaching for a tuna sandwich.

"I thought partners were supposed to support each other, not _stab them in the back_!" When Blake Rolled her eyes Yang turned to her sister for assistance. "Help me out here, Rubes; you still think romance movies are stupid, right? ...Ruby?"

Ever since they entered the room Ruby hadn't been feeling well; it was as if, all of a sudden, every smell in the space assaulted he all at once, making her feel sick to her stomach, and being right next to the lunch line wasn't helping matters.

"You OK, Sis?"

"You look unwell," Weiss remarked, "You're not coming down with something, are you?"

Ruby nodded meekly. "Nah, just a little queasy, nothing to worry about." She only had milk and a salad (piled high with croutons) on her tray. "Maybe we can talk about this at a table? I think I'll feel better once I'm sitting down."

Yang nodded and immediately looked around for somewhere the group could sit, finding one after only a second. "I'll go save us a spot."

As she went to do that Weiss and Blake finished getting their lunch, Blake grabbing another tuna sandwich for Yang, and headed over to the spot Yang picked a minute later.

"Is this better?" Weiss asked once they were all sitting.

"A little," she said, still holding her stomach, "I still feel like I want to throw up, though…."

Without warning Weiss's hand shot up, the back of its wrist resting on her partner's forehead, which elicited a squeak of shock from Ruby.

"Ack, Weiss…!"

"You're not running a fever," she remarked, "and you don't have a runny nose either…." She drew her hand back. "Remind me what you had for breakfast again?"

"Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes, like I always do. Why?"

"Were they stale?"

Ruby shook her head after taking a moment to think. "No, they didn't _taste_ stale…."

"They didn't taste weird at all?"

Another head shake. "Nope."

Weiss leaned forward on her elbows. "So you're not sick, and it's not food poisoning...are you _absolutely sure_ you didn't feel queasy earlier?"

"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed, a little annoyed at Weiss questions. "I felt fine until I came in here; why are you being so nosy?"

Apparently, her partner's outburst had no effect on Weiss, who simply held up a finger. "One," she counted off, "in your partner, so it's my job to keep tabs on your wellbeing. And two, you being sick affects the rest of us in more ways than just a catching what you have."

"Yeah, Weiss is just concerned for you, no need to bite her head off," Yang interjected. She then took a bite out of the end of her sandwich.

"We're _all_ concerned," Blake added, "we wouldn't be a very good team if we didn't care about our leader." She licked a bit of tuna off her finger.

This seemed to dispel whatever ire Ruby possessed; she blinked a couple times and her expression softened. "Sorry Weiss," she apologized, "I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"Apology accepted," Weiss smiled back. She then picked up her fork and speared a bit of her pasta said with it, "With that settled, it looks like we're seeing Shades of the Heart."

Yang immediately turned to her partner, "Blake, _please_ tell me you're not interested in some sappy romance flick!"

"Um…," her gaze was shamefully cast downward, "...I mean, Feline Dion _is_ a pretty talented actress."

As the three of them continued to argue over movie preferences Ruby tucked into her own meal, occasionally given her opinion on the suggest when asked. She still felt queasy, and the crackers didn't help as much as she thought they would. She didn't voice it, but she wanted her friends to hurry and finish eating so they could leave and go somewhere less pungent

She'd never had a problem with the cafeteria before, so why was she now?

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Very good, Mr. Vasillias," praised Glynda as Neptune flourished his trident, standing victorious over his opponent: his teammate, Scarlet David. "Next time, try not to aim below the belt so much, Mr. David is still recovering from the Tournament."

"Yeah, sorry," the sauve, Aqua haired boy apologized, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "it's kind of a force of habit at this point…."

"Well, see to it that you work to break it; among other reasons, it makes you into a predictable fighter, and a clever opponent will take advantage of that. You're dismissed." As the two boys headed to their seats (Scarlet whimpering a little) Glynda turned and addressed the rest of the class, "Who else would like to volunteer?"

Almost immediately a hand went up. "I'll give it a go," Cardin said, standing up, "Do I get to pick who I fight?" Glynda nodded, and he turned to scan the students.

After passing over a bunch of nobodies, his eyes landed on Teams RWBY and JNPR. Both teams were chatting with each other, like usual ("We _always_ watch action flicks, what's wrong with some variety?" "But _Weiss,_ 'Try Hard 2: Try Harderer'...!" "Nora…."), only now the two pipsqueak leaders were sitting next to each other, apparently cuddling with each other. "Hey, Arc!"

The scraggly Huntsman in training looked up. "...yeah?"

"Feel like putting on a show for your little girlfriend?"

Jaune looked like he wanted to refuse, but before he could say anything Ruby tugged on his sleeve, pulling him down to her level and whispering something in his ear. His face briefly turned red before he gulped and nodded, finally addressing Cardin. "S-sure, I'll fight you!"

As the scraggly boy made his way down to the arena floor Cardin smirked. Despite metaphorically burying the hatchet with his peer Cardin was still sore about getting saved by the puny weakling during the (somewhat) ill-fated trip into the Forest of Forever Fall, and he'd been meaning to get back at him for a while. Not in any big, noticeable way of course, wouldn't want people saying he went back on his word; something on a subtler, smaller scale was called for, and, if the rumors about Arc and Rose being lovebirds were true, a little showing up during Combat class was just the thing the doctor ordered! It was small scale, not too over the top, and most of all it was sanctioned by the school, so it was like they were practically _inviting_ him to take his low key revenge!

"Remember, you two," Glynda said as he and his target got into position, "the fight will end when one of your Auras goes into the red." She gestured to the large display board like she always did, both boys' Auras arranged next to each other. "So please don't do anything that would cause me to intervene." Her piece said, she headed over to the edge of the ring, tapping on her Scroll tablet.

"Don't worry," he assures his blond haired opponent, putting on a sincere sounding voice, "I'll try to make it look convincing." He then readied his mace, dropping into a fighting stance. "Don't want to look bad in front of your girlfriend, do you?"

In response Jaune drew his sword and opened his shield, keeping it in front of him as he got into a stance of his own.

"Alright then." Cardin twirled his mace around a couple times before charging at the smaller boy, opening with an underhanded swing.

Jaune leaned out of the way of the strike, quickly following it up with a jab at Cardin's chest; both his armor and his Aura prevented the blow from doing any serious damage. He continued to strike at Cardin, but now the other boy was wise to his onslaught and was either blocking or parrying his strikes with fair ease.

As loathe as Cardin was to admit it, Jaune had gotten a lot better since the last time they fought (that time before the trip to the Crimson Forest); he was actually moving like he had some training instead of wildly swinging his sword. He also wasn't giving him as many openings as he used to, and some of his attacks managed to get through his guard, so beating him was actually going to require some effort on Cardin's part. He seemed to be trying to overwhelm him with his constant attacks, so once those were broken….

On Jaune's next swing Cardin blocked it, then used his superior height and strength to force Jaune's sword downward, causing the boy to stagger. Not wasting any time, he swung his mace right at Jaune's center mass. (If Goodwitch wasn't keeping an eye on the fight he'd have aimed for his face.) The look of shock on Jaune's face as he raised his shield told Cardin he'd seen the attack coming, which was fine.

There was a reason he designed his weapon the way he had.

Right before impact he squeezed the special trigger on the grip, priming the Dust charge stores in the mace's head, and upon colliding with the shield released its charge, exploding.

As Jauney-boy flew back he spared a glance at the display board; he was missing a small chunk of his Aura, but his attack had apparently taken out close to half of Jaune's. He glanced at the bleachers and saw that Jaune's friends were all shouting things like "Come in, get up!" or "Remember what I promised!", he didn't particularly care to pay attention.

"What's the matter, Jaune?" he asked, casually switching out the Dust, "You started off _so good_ ; not surprising, most guys have stamina problems. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Jaune didn't respond indignantly like Cardin thought he would. Instead, he picked himself up, steeled his gaze directly at Cardin, and took his stance again.

Once again Cardin charged forward, intent once ending the fight with one more good swing. _Heh, piece of cake!_ he thought, pulling back the mace.

Then Jaune did something that no one was expecting: he charged back. No one seemed to draw a breath as Jaune thrust his shield forward, knocking Cardin's mace aside, following it up with with a short combination of strikes. They were all solid hits, and with the last hit he sent the taller boy falling to the ground. Cardin lay stunned, and Jaune took the opportunity to point his sword at him, looking victorious. Above them the display board showed Cardin's aura was a fraction of its former length, now colored red.

"You know, Cardin, this _was_ a good idea," he said, withdrawing his sword. He held a hand out to help the other boy up.

All Cardin could do was begrudgingly accept the hand up, anything else would have made him look even more the fool than he already did.

"Yeah," he grumbled, "no problem…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Later..._

Ruby towered off her hair as Weiss stepped into the shower stall, hanging her own towel over the top once inside. They and the rest of the team were going through their evening rituals, Blake and Yang having already finished their respective showers.

Thankfully Ruby's nausea had lessened over the rest of the day, though it never went away completely; she tried to participate during Combat class, but even then she barely managed to last a whole minute fighting before her gag reflex had her rushing for the restroom. (She had fortunately been called on after Jaune's fight, so at least there was that.)

She still had no idea why she was feeling this way, and it had been a good few days now. Apart for the constant nausea, for some reason her bras started to feel uncomfortable. Not unbearably so, but she took care not to lean her chest against anything if she could help it; it was especially noticeable when she and Jaune were making out and she pressed herself up against him. Sighing, she tossed her towel into the laundry basket and opened the cabinet below the sink to retrieve her feminine products. She pulled a fresh tampon out of the box and sat on the toilet seat, pulled her pajamas down.

 _Why am I feeling this way_? she wondered as she ripped the packaging open, _It's not like I'm sick, I'd feel a lot worse if I was_. She wracked her brain for any bit of information she could remember that might explain her present condition, but a that cane to her was the awkward conversation she'd had with her dad years ago when he tried to explain sex to her and Yang. She'd blocked most of it from her memory, though a couple things (like how her dad had to force himself to tell them about the Birds and the Bees) stuck around. She _vaguely_ remembered him saying something about the kinds of diseases people got from having sex, but that was for people who didn't use protection, which she made sure Jaune always wore. Well, except for that one time-

 _Ohmygod, we didn't use protection when we were locked in the training room!_ The realization of their unintentional blunder paralyzed her with fear, various symptoms of the STD's (that she knew about, at least) shoving their way to the dying of her mind.

Needless to say, none of them were pleasant.

Ruby quickly pulled her pants up and tossed her used tampon in the waste basket, reaching for her Scroll on the counter. Once the device was in hand she rushed back into the room- Weiss called after her to close the door- and hopped up onto her bunk. After scurrying under the covers she started typing out a message to Velvet but stopped before she got very far. She talked with the upperclassman Faunus a couple times since the first awkward conversation, and she'd been helpful, but she also seemed slightly uncomfortable with the subject matter, so Ruby made an effort to not get too detail when she was explain her problems; if she asked Velvet how someone could tell if they had an STD or not the poor girl would probably faint dead away, and Ruby didn't want to put her friend through that.

"This _sucks_ …!" she moaned, letting her face fall forward onto her pillow. Tomorrow she'd probably pay a visit to the Beacon's infirmary, but for the moment the uncertainty and the fear of what might be were, well...she was probably going to have some trouble falling asleep tonight.

" _Ruby,"_ Yang's slightly muffled voice said from outside the covers, " _you OK? You ran out of the bathroom pretty quick."_

"Uh, y-yeah, I'm fine," she lied, "I just got a text from Jaune."

" _Oh. Well, next time make sure you close the door, Weiss is in one of her moods again; I think it might be her time of the month."_

Giving Yang a grunt of affirmation and started typing another message, this one meant for Jaune. After all, if there was the possibility that _she_ caught something from him through sex….

 _to be continued…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Well, this isn't looking too good now, is it? Hope this doesn't turn out to be anything_ too _serious..._

 _To once again assure everyone that I know what I'm doing, I know what I'm doing. I literally have a timeline of events I'm working off of for how things are playing out, so if you're wondering why that_ clearly _obvious thing that should have happened already hasn't happened yet, it's probably because, since this fic is supposed to be more realistic depiction of these kinda of issues, it isn't going to happen immediately. (And I've watching every episode of the show forwards and backwards, so I've got a good handle on the characters.)_

 _I gotta say, writing that middle part with Cardin was interesting. People usually just use him as the generic bully without giving him a lot of depth (I'm sorta guilty of this as well...), but that doesn't mean he's not still a capable fighter with at least_ some _guile as well; he did get into Beacon legitimately, after all._

 _(And for the record, it's_ REALLLLLY _awkward writing about feminine hygiene when you're A. not a girl, and B. an adult man. Good thing I won't have to touch on anything that awkward anymore.)_

 _Anyway, we'll see what comes of this revelation next time Be sure to follow me on Tweeter (at "the_layman215") for fanfic updates and other RWBY related stuff. ...and maybe on YouTube as well._


	7. Diagnosis is Obvious

**Diagnosis is Obvious**

 _The next day…_

Both Teams RWBY and JNPR waited outside the infirmary as Ruby got looked at inside. Most of them were leaning against the walls.

"I _knew_ she wasn't telling the truth last night!" exclaimed Yang as she paced back and forth in front of the entrance, "Why didn't she say something to me? I'm her freaking _sister_!"

"And I'm her boyfriend!" Jaune pointed out. He was sitting on the floor with the rest of his team, both Ren and Pyrrha with a comforting hand on his shoulders. Nora was, once again, standing on her head as she waited. "I didn't even know anything was up until she messaged me last night."

Weiss turned to look at Jaune. "And you're _absolutely sure_ she didn't say anything about why she needed to come here?" she asked, "Because she woke us up when she was throwing up this morning."

He shook his head, "Not really...all she said was that she was thinking about the time we were locked in the training room and that she thought this was a good idea." He hung his head a little lower. "I should have brought her right here yesterday when she barged during class…."

Pyrrha gave his right shoulder a little squeeze, "No one blames you for this, Jaune."

"We all thought it was nothing," Ren reminded him, "and she seemed fine after that, so there wasn't any reason to think otherwise."

"Did you use protection then?" Blake asked, seemingly out of nowhere. She'd been reading one of her books while they all waited, and now she was looking over the top of it at Jaune.

Jaune gaped at Blake's curtness for a moment before answering. "I dunno, maybe? It was almost a month ago." He regarded the Faunus curiously, "Why?"

"Because if you didn't, then that might explain why Ruby's so worried about what's going with her body." She closed her book, "So did you or didn't you?"

Before Jaune could answer he noticed that everyone else was now staring at him; Yang's glare in particular sent a chill down his spine. "Well…," he rubbed the back of his head nervously, running through the event in his head, "I mean...I guess it's _possible_ we forgot…."

"Didn't you say at one point Ruby always made you use protection?" asked Weiss.

He nodded. "Yeah, I keep it in my pocket." He quickly fished a small, square packet from his pants pocket. "I good thing I never take these off, right?"

"Except when you're taking a shower," Pyrrha pointed out hesitantly.

"Right, except when I'm-"

The packet slipped from his hand.

"It's all my fault," he bemoaned, his head falling into his hands, "I got my own girlfriend sick! I'm the worst person _ever_!"

"You're not the _worst_ ever," Yang reassured him, continuing to pace, "I can think of a couple people _much_ worse than you are right now…."

"That's not really helping, Yang." Weiss rubbed her temples. "...and would you stand still already? You're going to wear a hole in the floor!"

Yang spun around and pointed at the heiress, "Look, I'm not really in the mood for puns, and if I don't do something I feel like I'm gonna explode, so it's either this or I start cracking jokes."

She didn't stop pacing as she said this, for the record.

After a few more moments of awkward silence Nora sighed. "I wonder how Ruby's doing in there?"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"There we go," the doctor- a middle aged woman with cerulean hair- said, placing a bandage over the spot where she drew blood from Ruby, "it should only take a few minutes to get results from the blood." She sat down on a stool and grabbed her clipboard. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you some questions. They might be a bit personal, but please answer honestly, OK?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, OK." She rubbed her arm a little near the shoulder, "I just want to know what's wrong with me…."

The doctor nodded and clicked a pen open. "Firstly, how long have you been sexually active?"

Ruby's face turned from pale to crimson, and she poked her pointer fingers together. "...a little more than a month," she admitted.

"Mhmm." The doctor made a note of something Ruby couldn't see. "And you say you and he always used protection?"

Her face got redder.

"Um...Dr. Nightengale-?"

"Call me Lea, honey," the doctor said, looking up from her writing, "I know this is troubling for you, so don't worry about being so formal." She gave Ruby a gentle smile, "I promise not to tell anyone anything you say, as long as it doesn't compromise your physical well being."

At this Ruby seemed a little more at ease. "Well, there was one time were we didn't, but that was because someone took all our stuff one night and locked us in the practice room…every other time we did, though."

"Thank you." She made more notes. "If you don't mind, could you please explain to me exactly how you've been feeling unwell this past...week, was it?"

"Well...for some reason I've been feeling queasy whenever I'm around food, and I feel like I need to throw up in the mornings. My bras feel uncomfortable now, and…." Ruby blushed again.

"I think I can guess," Dr. Nightengale spoke up, listing off, "You've been needing to urinate more, you're more tired than usual, and you're feeling like you're fat even though you haven't been eating more than normal?" she guessed.

"Yeah…," she nodded. "Now that she thought about it, Ruby _had_ been feeling a little more winded lately, especially when she tried to fight in class the other day (her nausea hadn't really helped with that much…), though she'd just assumed it was because she had a light lunch earlier. Dr. Nightengale was correct about the other two points as well, but those were a little too embarrassing to actually admit out loud, even to a doctor. Instead, she settled for nodding.

"OK then, one last question: did you miss your last period?"

"No, I-" Ruby started to say, before thinking back on the previous night; she was pretty distraught worrying that she might have caught something from not having used protection the one time with Jaune, and hadn't really paid too much attention to the old tampon she threw away. She thought harder, but couldn't quite remember if the cord had been red, nor the others before that. Come to think of it, she'd gone through most of this last box and had yet to see any red. "...not for a while," she said in a tiny voice.

"I see…." The doctor tapped the pen against the corner of her mouth a couple times, then set it and the clipboard down. "Ruby, I have some news-"

"Am I gonna be alright?" the young girl blurted, jumping from the examination table she sat on, "I'm not going to die, am I? _Please_ say I'm not gonna die; I don't want to leave my friends and everyone else all alone!" Tears started to leak from her eyes.

"Ruby, you're not going to die," the doctor assured her, placing a hand on Ruby's shoulders, "At least, not the way you're worried about; the odds of that happening right now are so astronomically low they might as well be nonexistent." She spoke with a gentle tone, which seemed to calm the young girl down.

"So, I _don't_ have an STD?" she asked.

"I'll know for sure once the blood analysis is finished, but I highly doubt it." She gently urged Ruby back to the table. "Out of curiosity, why were you so worried you contracted an STD?"

Poke, poke. "Well, I mean...we didn't use protection, so…."

"Ah." Lea nodded and, now that her charge was relatively calm, headed beck over to analysis machine. "It's true that you and your boyfriend haven't built up all the proper immunities to sexually transmitted diseases yet, but by that same token neither of you have any sexual history before sleeping with each other, so you wouldn't have as much harmful bacteria in your systems. Essentially, you two are both very lucky."

Ruby smiled a little, letting out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness…."

"That said, there's a second part to all this."

"Oh? ...what is it?"

For a moment the doctor said nothing, eventually getting up and walking towards the entrance. "I feel it would be best to explain with the others here as well."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

" _She's WHAT?!"_ Yang, Jaune, Weiss, and Pyrrha all exclaimed at once, all mere inches from Lea Nightengale's face. To her credit, the medical practitioner seemed nonplussed by this.

"Ruby Rose is currently with child, albeit in the very early stages of pregnancy," the doctor explained once more, "that's why she's exhibiting all these symptoms, and more will likely make themselves known in the coming weeks." She paused, waiting for the four teens to back up. "...apart from what's going to happen in eight to nine months, of course."

"But... _how_?" Yang wondered, finally backing up. She looked over at her sister, "Didn't you say you guys always used protection?"

Ruby was still poking her fingers together on the exam table. "Uh, remember when you guys found us locked in the-"

"Nevermind, everything makes sense now," Weiss interrupted, "I finally got used to the idea of you two-" she gestured between Ruby and Jaune "-being a couple, I'd like to keep it at just that for the moment."

Jaune, meanwhile, had taken a seat next to Ruby on the table, still trying to process the news he'd just received. All he wanted when he came to Beacon was to become a Huntsman and get a cute girlfriend; one out of two of those things were already taken care of, and only super recently. Becoming a parent wasn't even _remotely_ on his To Do list yet! This was a lot for someone only seventeen years old to take in.

"I'm...a dad?" he asked to no one in particular.

"It would appear so…," Pyrrha said. She had a distant, unreadable look in her eyes.

" _I'll_ say!" Nora piped up, "And your kid is gonna be the cutest thing _ever_!" She quickly enveloped her leader and his girlfriend/baby's mother in a massive hug. "I'm _totes_ jealous of you two right now-" Then she gasped. "Oh my god, _can I be 'Auntie Nora'?_ _Pleeeeeeaaaaase_?"

"Nora, give them some space." Ren gently tugged is partner beck by her collar.

"When will the baby be due?" Blake asked, in an attempt to keep things on track.

Lea gave a brief exhale. "If conception occurred roughly a month ago, then we can reasonably expect you'll be ready to give birth in about eight months."

"Ok then, that's good to know." Weiss went over and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Are you going to be ok?"

"Yeah, I think so…," Ruby answered, giving a small nod, "This is just...I honestly wasn't expecting this."

" _Neither was I,"_ Jaune and Yang said, once again in unison.

"Understandable," the doctor said, "though I must say, you're taking the news quite well."

"I think it's more they're in shock," Blake pointed out, jerking a thumb a Yang, who was making unintelligible noises while kneading her scalp with one hand.

"Yes, that's also true…," the doctor conceded. Then the analysis machine beeped and she checked her Scroll. "More good news: you have contracted any serious STD's, nor are you carrying any."

Ruby sighed in relief at the news, leaning against Jaune's shoulder with a smile on her lips.

"Granted, that's only for Miss Rose here." The doctor then addressed Jaune directly. "We should probably have you tested as well while you're here, Mr. Arc." He nodded listlessly.

"Don't worry, Jaune, I think you'll make a great dad!" Ruby assured her boyfriend, giving his arm a little squeeze and planting a small peck in his cheek. She the gave him a hug around his chest, "I have faith in you."

The tiniest traces of a smirk broke through in his face as he hugged Ruby back.

"Thanks, Ruby."

"Yes," Pyrrha said, her expression still unreadable, "thank you, Ruby."

"D'aw~...!" Nora cooed, "You two look cute enough to eat right now!"

This caused both teens to blush at being called 'cute', though the rest of the complement left then a little uneasy.

"Anyway, Miss Rose is free to go now; it'll only take to draw blood from Mr. Arc, so you're all welcome to wait outside for him if you wish." The cerulean haired woman washed her hands and retrieved another needle and syringe from their containers. "I'll let the rest of the faculty know why you'll be late to your next class."

The two teams were just heading outside when Lea Nightengale said this, and upon hearing it Ruby and Yang stopped dead. Their heads slowly turned around. " _...what?"_

Lea seemed legitimately surprised at their behavior. "Normally kids your age are happy when I give them a free pass to be a little tardy…." she remarked, visibly perplexed.

"But...you said you wouldn't tell anyone!" Ruby reminded her, once again sounding distraught. "You promised!"

"I did?" the doctor asked.

"Yeah, when you were asking me those questions before; you promised you wouldn't say anything to anyone!"

"Ah!" She placed the syringe and knelt down to Ruby's level. "I'm sorry if I misled you, but given your diagnosis I'm obligated to tell the teaching staff, for the good of your child. This is a combat academy after all, and any number of things could potentially cause complications in your pregnancy." She sighed, "And because you're under legal age I'm going to have tell your parents about this too."

The two sisters gasped at this, looking aghast and fearful.

"You can't tell our dad!" Yang pleaded, "You don't know him like we do; he'll ground Ruby for life!"

"Forget that, he's gonna _murder_ Jaune once he finds out what happened!" Ruby countered.

There was a brief pause before he exclaimed "Wait, _WHAT?!"_

"Oh, it can't be _that_ bad!" scoffed Weiss.

In nearly perfect unison, Yang and Ruby's turned their heads to state directly at the heiress with haunted expressions.

"...what?"

"Poor, sweet, innocent Weiss…." Ruby walked over to Weiss and patted her face pityingly. "Never lose hold of that innocence."

"I brought a date home one time," Yang told Weiss mirthlessly, "and out dad was there; the next day he told me he was moving to Vacuo. ...He was on the airship when he called me."

"But we met him at the Vytal Festival!" Nora protested, "He seemed so nice then."

"Yeah, but Ruby wasn't Jaune's Baby Momma then."

"Ohhh…!"

"I'm _sure_ there was a better way to phrase that," Weiss commented.

" _I'm too young to die!_ " Jaune wailed.

"If I may?" Dr. Nightengale interrupted, drawing everyone's focus back to her. "Ruby, your father deserves to know about this, for better or worse. Now, if you want to tell him yourself I'll let you, and I'll give you a couple days to do so, but I'm going to call him whether or not you do, and I feel that call with go over better if he knows about this beforehand, OK?"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _If FFN allowed you to upload images in the docs, I'd have just put a giant "Condescending Wonka" pic right at the top of the page. What I'm saying is that it was obvious that something like this was going to happen with what the catalyst for all this way._

 _But yeah, Ruby's preggers now. That'll be fun, huh? What with the morning sickness, and the cramps, and the mood swings, and the other bodily changes, and the labor pains, and the actual process of childbirth...kids, go hug your moms, they deserve it for putting up with all the grief you gave them._

 _Speaking of which, I wonder what they're gonna name it? I dunno, I was thinking maybe y'all had some ideas? (I'm a sucker for light reader participation gimmicks.) Please leave suggestion in your review for either a male or female name to call Jaune and Ruby's kid. Of course, Monty's 'Color Naming Rule' applies: the name must Be a Color, Sound like a Color, Mean a Color, or Make people think of a Color. PS, please try and be creative?_

 _Also, I wonder what Ruby's gonna decide about telling her dad?_

 _...anywho, follow me on Tweeter (at "the_layman215") for updates on my fanfiction and for copious RWBY related retweets. I also stream on Twitch ("the_layman") and make Youtube vids! ("The Layman") And keep sending reviews here, I crave feedback!_


	8. Morning Sickness is Sucky

_Author's Note: I now have a poll of my favorite baby names that have been suggested thus far. Please vote to help pick which one I'll use. **NO MORE SUGGESTIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THIS.**_

 _That is all. Please continue._

 **Morning Sickness is Sucky**

 _A week later…_

"Bleeeeeeeeeeh…," moaned Ruby as her team stood next to the lower of her and Weiss's bunk bed. She'd moved down there on the recommendation of Dr. Nightengale after she began to feel the Morning Sickness in full, Weiss only putting up a _tiny_ bit of resistance given the circumstances.

Yang stroked her sister's forehead; she and her other friends were already in their uniforms. "I'm so sorry, Rubes."

"What are _you_ sorry about?" asked Weiss, an eyebrow raised, "Ruby's the one still in bed right now."

Ruby shook her head, wincing slightly. "It's OK Weiss, Yang's just concerned; she's a good sister like that."

Yang smiled at the praise. She glanced over at the poster that was hung up- t was a candid shot of Blake from the time Port made everyone run an obstacle course he designed, the Faunus hanging partway off a tightrope. The words "Hang in there!" captioned the top and bottom of the image- and sighed. Usually something like that and a glass of milk would help the young girl feel better, but they quickly learned that milk sent Ruby headed straight for the nearest open receptacle to barf, and all the poster did was cause Blake to groan and pretend she wasn't blushing in embarrassment.

It was times like these that she wished Summer Rose were still alive….

"We should probably head to class soon," Blake pointed out, looking at her Scroll. She quickly pocketed the device and asked Ruby "Is there anything we can do before we leave?"

Once again Ruby shook her head. "Nah, I'll be alright. Just...leave the crackers where I can reach them?" She then reached, limply, for a box of crackers on a small nightstand that had been set up by the bed. Yang immediately moved them so they were within reach.

"Anything else?" she asked.

"Um...could you tell Jaune to come see me before lunch?" She blinked her eyes a couple times, trying to seem cute, "...please?"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Pyrrha sighed as she took notes on Dr. Oobleck's lecture, only half paying attention to what the hyperactive man was saying. Normally she'd be more focused on the lesson, but today, and for the past while, really, her mind was plagued with thoughts of Jaune, Ruby, and their future child.

It wasn't that she was stewing over the fact that Ruby was going to give birth to Jaune's child in eight month, but that thought had a way of working itself into the forefront of her mind at the oddest moments: while she was brushing her hair in the morning, while Teams JNPR and RWBY were eating lunch together, in the shower, during a practice fight, etc.

She tried to shake the image of the two team leaders holding a newborn baby from her mind, but it's hold was strong. _Just don't think about it,_ Pyrrha told herself, _it won't be a distraction if I don't treat it as one._ With that thought in mind she tried to keep as mentally busy as possible, going through her various forms and stances for combat.

"...os? _Miss Nikos!_ "

Pyrrha jerked upright, letting out a small, shocked gasp; she'd apparently been so lost in her effort to pay attention that she ironically ignored what she was trying to pay attention to in the first place!

"Y-yes, Professor?"

"It's 'Dr', actually. And if you're done day dreaming, then perhaps you can tell the rest of the class the reason the Vytal Festival was established?"

"Oh, of course!" It took her a second to recompose herself, but once that was accomplished she gave the answer clearly and concisely.

"Very good," the academic nodded, taking a sip from his thermos. Then he turned to the rest of the assembled students, "Don't think Miss Nikos's excellent memory gives the rest of you a pass; I want everyone to reread the current chapter, because there _will_ be a quiz on it tomorrow! Now-" He ignored the chorus of groans that follow his statement as he continued the lesson.

"Hey, you OK there, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, leaning over to the Mistrali fighter. She shook her head.

"I'm fine, Jaune. It's nothing."

"You sure? Cuz you were looking a little spacey there. ...if you're not getting enough sleep then we could cut back on my trainingna little. Besides, I think I've gotten good enough to-"

" _Mr. Arc! Unless you'd like to take over the lesson please refrain from unnecessary chit-chat!"_

"Sorry!"

" _Thank you. ...and don't think I dint notice you sleeping, Miss Valkyrie!"_

" _Zzzz- wagh! Yang did it!"_

" _Good grief, Nora…."_

The good news was that Pyrrha didn't have any more trouble focusing on the lesson at hand.

The bad news was that she spent the rest of the class feeling embarrassed about being singled out.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

After Dr. Oobleck's class and especially throughout lunch Pyrrha's thoughts once again dwelt on her partner and his girlfriend; Jaune had gone off to see Ruby and Nora was held after class to get lectured by the good Doctor, so she was currently eating by herself.

 _We could have gone to see he together_ , she thoroughly, chewing on a simple cold cut sandwich, _I wouldn't have minded…it's not like I couldn't survive missing a meal one time…._

There wasn't really all that much to when you were eating by yourself (at least that inherently existed in the scenario itself) so she passed the time by watching what the other students were doing. Most of them were sitting in groups of four, happily eating their respective lunches and chatting freely with each other; occasionally there would be smaller cliques scattered around the hall, but for the most part it was groups of four. Teams would sit down or leave, others would sit with other teams. Every now and then she would spy someone else she knew, like Team CFVY, but they were usually across the room or preoccupied with their own circle of friends. She spotted a team that bore a striking resemblance to her own sitting a couple tables over, though in place of her their group had a girl had looked more like Ruby; she was sitting in the lap of a girl who could very well be a female version of Jaune, nuzzling in the nape of their neck and making doey eyes up at them. The Jaune like girl appeared to groan, only to lean down and plant a kiss on the Ruby like girl's forehead, causing her to giggle.

She scoffed, turning away from the saccharine display. It was _clearly_ because there was only so much sickeningly sweet affection anyone could stand and not because she was _totally_ imagining herself and Jaune in place of those two girls, no! Jaune was together with Ruby now- not her- ...and they were also going to have a child. Ruby was going to be the mother of Jaune's child.

... _she_ could be a mother, too….

" _Pyrrha_?"

She snapped out of her musings when she suddenly heard her name called. Looking up, she saw Nora and Ren standing over her, the stoic boy holding a folder to his side.

"Is everything alright?" Ren asked.

"Yes, everything is perfectly fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're crushing that sandwich like it just spat on your pancakes," Nora pointed out, gesturing to the now fused remains of meat, cheese and bread in Pyrrha's hands.

Pyrrha just stared blankly at it for a full five seconds.

"...I was mostly done with it anyway," she said, placing the edible(?) mass dien and wiping off her hand. "Nora's nit in any trouble, is she?"

"Nothing too serious," Ren explained, "Oobleck mostly just told her to take learning more seriously."

"I had to write 'I will not sleep in class' a billion times…," the usually bubbly redhead pouted as she scooped up Pyrrha's "sandwich" and took a bite.

As she spat it back out Ren continued, "He also gave us homework to pass on to Ruby." He held up the folder for emphasis. "We were going to drop it off before Ms. Goodwitch's class."

"Wanna come with?" Nora asked, "I bet Ruby'd appreciate it."

Pyrrha thought for a moment. It _was_ likely that Ruby was feeling lonely cooped up in her room because of her rather debilitating bout if morning sickness and probably welcomed whatever company she got...but Jaune was already there, wasn't he? Surely if the young girl wanted to see anyone today it would be him, not her. She would just get in the way, an unwanted third wheel.

"I think I'll pass," she informed her teammate, "if all of us go, then we'll risk the whole team being tardy; better at least one of us is there to explain things to Ms. Goodwitch." Internally, Pyrrha allowed herself a moment of pride for coming up with such a plausible out in the spur of the moment; given the choice between feeling awkward around Ruby and having to sit with her thoughts a little longer, she'd pick the later.

Nora looked a little disappointed, but didn't argue. "Oh, OK then. Don't want to have _another_ teacher lecture me, I guess." She stood up and latched herself into Ren, "Be sure to save us good seats, I want you guys to have a clear view of me while I'm breaking legs!" As they headed off Pyrrha could hear the two arguing whether Nora was being literal about wanting to break legs all the time.

Once alone she gathered up her plate to dispose of her meal. _Well then, I suppose I'd better get to class._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Pyrrha Nikos wins the match," Glynda announced, Pyrrha standing victorious over her opponent.

"Go Pyrrha!" Nora cheered, jumping up from her seat. Jaune and Ren both applauded next to her. Behind them sat Weiss, Blake and Yang.

"Way to go, Cereal Box!" shouted Yang, "Nobody can touch ya!"

Many other people cheered for her as well, including Jaune, but she didn't pay them any mind; this was typical for the Invincible Girl, and although she appreciated the adulation of her friends and teammates, the others held little overall mean when you could count on one hand how many losses you had to your name. She let out a breath, allowing the adrenaline from the fight to fade away.

"Well done, Miss Nikos," Glynda said, tapping her Scroll a couple times, "You may go back to your seat if you wish."

Despite having just fought against three other students Pyrrha didn't feel tired. "Actually, I think I could go for one more round, if that's alright."

"Very well." Another tap and the display above the ring was cleared, though Pyrrha's image remained. "Would you like to chose your opponent this time?" the teacher asked, to which Pyrrha shook her head 'no'. Glynda nodded and turned to the other students, "Would anyone else like to spar with Miss Nikos?"

A hand immediately shot up from the back.

"Ah, Miss Raine. Very well, go ahead and get prepared."

Pyrrha tried to catch a glimpse of her next opponent, but she was apparently short enough that the other students blocked her view of the girl. She didn't have to wait long for her next chance, as the girl reappeared a few minutes later just as Ms. Goodwitch was finishing up a speech about not pushing yourself.

To her shock, it was the girl from the cafeteria who was nuzzling her girlfriend.

"Hi there!" she exclaimed, immediately holding a hand out to Pyrrha, "I'm Thistle Raine, nice to meet you, Pyrrha!"

"Um, likewise…," she responded, thankfully still in possession of her common courtesy; this Thistle girl's pixie like demeanor was more than a little disarming. Regardless, she took the girl's hand and shook it.

"Don't worry about going easy on me," the pixie girl said, "I may look small, but I'm tough,so don't hold back!"

If possible, this girl was even _more_ energetic than Ruby!

"If you're both ready then please take your positions," Glynda said, having added Thistle's Aura to the display.

"Gotcha!" The girl nodded her affirmation before turning to the bleachers and blowing a kiss at her teammate who looked like Jaune. "Wish me luck, Jeané!"

 _Still as obnoxious with her affection,_ Pyrrha thought. She got into a combat stance, Akoúo held in front of her and Miló at the ready behind.

Thistle reached behind her back and swung out a studded club nearly as big as she was, resting it on her shoulder like it weighed nothing. With her free hand she made the "come at me" motion.

 _Well, she did say not to hold back…._

"Begin!" With that proclamation a buzzer sounded, officially starting the match.

Thistle made the first move, slamming her club down and sending a shockwave directly at Pyrrha. The Invincible Girl managed to leap out of the way, shifting Miló into its gun form and opening fire. Despite the great size of the weapon Thistle wielded it with ease, blocking the shots coming her way. Seeing that wasn't exactly working, Pyrrha shifted Miló back to its sword form and charged forward.

Before she got close something exploded at her feet, forcing her to stop. A quick glance at Thistle confirm what she thought; the pixie like girl was holding her weapon parallel to the ground with its tip pointed forward, revealing a round, hollow chamber running along the inside.

 _It must be some kind of mortar,_ Pyrrha mused, _Fortunately, that's not too dissimilar from Magnhild_.

Another shell was fired, but this time Pyrrha was ready for it. As she resumed her charge she put a little bit of her Semblance into Akoúo and swatted the incoming projectile, causing it to narrowly miss her.

Thistle grinned and drew her club back. "Now _this_ is more like it!" She swung directly at Pyrrha's center mass, only be blocked by Akoú o, Pyrrha herself using both arms to brace against the force of the impact. "Wow, you really _are_ super strong!"

With the pixie girl's weapon locked Pyrrha attempted to use her polarity to subtly shift the club to the side, allowing her to get a decent hit or two on her opponent, but before she could Thistle drew the club back gave another massive swing. This time Pyrrha was pushed back from the blow, Thistle switching back to ranged tactics.

A quick glance at the display board told Pyrrha that she wasn't doing well; that last hit took over a third of her Aura, her bar now colored yellow. _I have to do something,_ she thought, dodging mortar shells, _She has good attack and decent defense...but not mobility, otherwise she'd be coming after me with her club._ With that knowledge in mind Pyrrha felt she had a good strategy for winning.

Eventually Thistle stopped firing to reload, and Pyrrha didn't waste the opportunity; she quickly shifted Miló into its rifle mode and laid into Thistle, once again closing the ground between them. Thanks to the distraction of reloading her shots hit, staggering the pixie girl back a little. Once she was close enough Pyrrha shifted Miló back to its sword form and launched a flurry of strikes at Thistle. A couple landed, but the rest were blocked when she gave up on reloading. It looked like her victory was assured.

With a cocky smirk Thistle suddenly disappeared, Pyrrha's next strike cutting through empty space.

" _Over here!"_ came a voice from behind her, and Pyrrha whirled around to find Thistle standing on the other side of the arena, waving at her. The display board revealed that her Aura had taken some damage from Pyrrha's attack, but not much.

 _That must be her Semblance!_ she realized.

"Not bad," Thistle said, "I was trying to keep my Semblance a secret, but you got me to use it." She giggled, "If I didn't already like Jeané I'd totally fall did you.~"

 _I need to touch her club,_ Pyrrha thought, ignoring the compliment/confession, _if I can take that away from her…._

She steeled herself and charged once more, intent on ending the fight with one final assault. She tossed Akoúo, using her Semblance to curve its trajectory. Thistle turned to deflect it, while at the same time Pyrrha juked in the opposite direction, calling her shield back to her arm. The pixie girl barely had time to react as Pyrrha's hand brushed her weapon, spinning around to deliver a shield bash to her face.

Like before, the girl disappeared before Pyrrha's attack could connect.

 _Dammit!_

"Geez, that was close! I guess I'd better get serious!"

As Pyrrha turned to face her opponent the pixie girl made a massive overhead swing, the club propelling her upward. Right as she started to fall she disappeared again, this time higher up and directly above Pyrrha.

" _Banzai!_ " she cried as she brought her club down, the impact leaving a small crater on the arena floor.

"Match over!" Glynda announced as Pyrrha slid to a stop in front of the bleachers, "Thistle Raine is the winner."

Pyrrha looked up at the display board, her heart sinking a little as she saw the final results; her Aura was only a sliver of what it started as, while Thistle's hadn't decreased past the bit that was already chipped away.

It was the first time in a long while that Pyrrha had lost like this.

"Nice match…," Thistle said, now standing over her; the pixie like girl was panting heavily, "I can only use my Semblance a few times before it wears me out, and you _definitely_ put me through the ringer." She held out a hand, "Need a hand up?"

She _really_ didn't want to accept the help, it was embarrassing enough that she lost to this...overly perky, overly affectionate, pixie like girl with an oversized weapon. She could have won the fight if she wanted! Really! The problem was she was just being too subtle, more focused on the strategy that she didn't just _fight_! But next time would be different; she wouldn't lose, and then _Thistle_ would be the one on her-!

"Uh, you gonna get up or just mumble to yourself?"

The question snapped Pyrrha out of her thoughts, and she looked up at Thistle. "I'll manage," she said evenly, "you don't have to worry about me." With that she got to her knees and stood up.

"O-OK then, if you say so…." The petite girl started shuffling backwards. "...no hard feelings about losing, right?"

" _None whatsoever._ "

"Cool! Anyway, my team's waiting for me. Laters!"

As Pyrrha trudged back to Team JNPR she looked behind her one last time; Thistle was, again, hanging off of her teammate who looked like Jaune- "Jeané", she remembered- sharing what was probably a well deserved kiss.

Pyrrha decided that she didn't particularly care for Thistle Raine.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _So, Pyrrha seems to be taking the whole "Ruby and Jaune being together and having a child on the way" thing pretty well, no repressed feelings of resentment there!_

 _And Qrow is actually Ruby's canonical birth father instead of Taiyang. Sure. Totally. (Get over it, people! Why do you want to make poor Taiyang suffer?)_

 _But yeah, this chapter was interesting to write, and not just because I needed to flex my fight choreography muscles again so soon. I've (maybe not so subtly) hinted that Pyrrha isn't exactly too thrilled at the prospect of her crush not_ _only continuing to be oblivious to her feelings towards her, but picking someone else to have the kind of closeness she wants with, and sired a child with, so my big challenge here was how to show that frustration in something other than plain text. And that's when it dawned on me to throw Thistle in here, because what's more frustrating than someone or something constantly reminding you that you failed? (Even if it isn't Thistle's fault….)_

 _Also, Thistle's club weapon is supposed to be a kanabo club. This was mostly because it was the only weapon I could think of on short notice that could easily turn into a gun- because in RWBY_ _ **EVERYTHING IS ALSO A GUN**_ _. ...except Crocea Mors-_ _but now that I'm thinking about it it's quite symbolic of that Thistle Raine is a reminder of what Pyrrha can't have, thereby making her Pyrrha's demon. (The Oni of Japanese mythology traditionally wield kanabo clubs, you see.) Huh, I actually legitimately surprised myself there…._

 _A_ _nyway, I wonder what sort of pregnancy related hi-jinx the characters will get up to next time? Tune in next time to find out! Also, hit me up on Tweeter (at "the_layman215"), Twitch ("the_layman") and YouTube ("The Layman") to see what else I'm up to when I'm not writing._


	9. Visit is Unexpected

_**OK, so the poll is over. A winner has been chosen, and it will be revealed once the baby is born. (Which is going to be a long time coming, so strap in. Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!)**_

 **Visit is Unexpected**

 _One week later…_

"Now run along," Cardin told the Faunus student he and his Team had pulled aside for a..."conversation", "you don't want to keep the rest of your team waiting, do you?" The poor Faunus nodded timidly and hurried off at a quick but deliberate pace. "Well," the brown haired leader sighed, stretching, "that was my good deed for the day, what do you guys say we grab some food and watch that Jet Ji movie I got?"

"Heck yeah!" exclaimed Russel, doing a poor imitation of the martial arts Jet Ji movies were known for, "Hoo! Hah! Hoo-ah!"

"Would you give that a rest already?" Dove said, smacking his teammate upside his Mohawk, "Just stick to _actual_ fighting."

While those two were arguing Sky leaned in to Cardin. "You made sure this is the unrated version, right?" he whispered.

"Oh, you know it!" Cardin nodded back, "Nothing but the best for my Team."

"Right on!" The blue haired boy gave Cardin a healthy pat on his shoulder.

Cardin immediately locked eyes with Sky. "...what did I say about touching me?"

Sky drew his hand back. "Only emotionally-"

"'Only emotionally', that's right." He started to head neck to their room, trusting his team would follow once they saw him leaving, only to run into another student coming from the opposite direction before he turned the first corner. "Hey! Watch where you're going, idiot!"

"S-sorry!" the other student, a mousy looking boy with glasses, apologized, "It w-won't happen again!"

"It _better_ not!" Cardin huffed. He was in a relatively good mood so he figured he'd let the kid go...but his pride wanted some answers first. "What's your hurry, anyway; is someone giving wimps like you a chance to pop your cherries?" He had no idea if this kid was actually still a virgin or not, but given his appearance Cardin felt it safe to assume so.

To his shock the mousy boy perked up a bit "Oh, you know about that too?" He continued before Cardin could respond, "I heard there was some girl who slept her way into here and gives quickies in the bathrooms to keep people quiet about it! Apparently she's always waiting in a different bathroom each time, so it's mostly luck of the draw if you can find her."

This...was interesting. Cardin knew students in relationships would often duck into the restrooms for a quick screw; he himself had a couple rendezvous if the like. However, this was the first he'd heard of this promiscuous student handing out favors.

"She have a name?" he asked.

"Mousy" thought for a moment. "I think it was some kind of flower…'Rouge Tulip' or something like that, I know it had something to do with red…."

Compared to others Cardin could raise his eyebrows very high, but they didn't need to be to show how interested he was with that newest bit of information.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _BANG BANG BANG BANG!_ sounded abruptly on Team JNPR's door.

"EEEEEEE!" shrieked Jaune, nearly falling off his bed. The comic he was reading, a suspense story called "Day 5", practically flew out of his hands as he flailed about in shock.

" _Jaune?"_ Ruby's worried voice came from the other side, " _Are you still in there? Something came up."_

Those last three words were enough to instantly sober him up, a myriad of unpleasant thoughts going through his mind for what could have happened to make Ruby as desperate as she sounded. After picking himself up from the floor (and quickly making sure he didn't look like he just fell to the floor) he hurried to the door and yanked it open.

"Is the baby OK?!" he asked frantically. That is, until he actually took a second to take a good look at his girlfriend; she looked fine for all intents and purposes, and it slowly dawned on him that if something _were_ wrong with their child she'd be A. much more distraught than she seemed currently, and B. either in her bed or in the infirmary.

"The baby's fine," she assured the scraggly Huntsman in training.

"...are _you_ OK?"

"Y-yeah, I'm th-the-" *sniff* "-b-bee's knees!"

Her sniffling belied assurance she gave.

Now Jaune was _really_ worried. "Ruby...what's wrong?"

Despite the calm demeanor he presented (he would have been surprised at himself if he weren't so concerned about Ruby at the moment) this was apparently the final straw for Ruby, who broke into tears and hugged him as tightly as possible. "I don't want our kid to grow up without a father!" she wailed in his stomach.

This was more than a little confusing for him; it was quite literally the last thing he was expecting to hear.

"I'm not gonna leave you for some other girl, Ruby; I said I loved you and wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, remember?"

She kicked him in the shin.

" _It's not that_!" she sobbed, looking directly into his eyes now, "You're gonna die and there's nothing I can do about it!"

OK, now he was even _more_ confused. "But...Dr. Nightengale said I didn't catch anything when we had sex."

Another kick to the shin.

Maybe he should consider wearing his shin guards around Beacon from now on if Ruby was going to be like this….

"Ruby," he winced, "please stop kicking me and tell me what's wrong?"

She nodded and wiped away her tears.

"OK, so _why_ do you think I'm going to die?" he asked.

"Because-" She sniffles again. "...because my dad's coming to Beacon and he's gonna kill you."

Ah. _Now_ things made more sense.

"Maybe he'll be nice this time?" he suggested, wincing internally at how lame that sounded.

Ruby shook her head sadly. "We had sex and I'm pregnant; you'll be lucky if he introduces himself before he pummels you into jelly."

Jaune gulped audibly.

He slumped to the ground, his head hanging limply. "So...there's no hope for me…?"

"'fraid not." She knelt next to him and gave him a light peck in the cheek. "For what it's worth, the time we spent together made me really happy, and I'm sure everyone else thinks the same, too."

"...even Weiss?" He asked more out of curiosity than an actual hope that the heiress secretly pined for him; she'd made it perfectly clear that Jaune held no romantic interest to her, and he, having more or less accepted his fate at the hands of Ruby's scary father, at least wanted to leave the mortal coil with the knowledge that he'd made a positive impact on his friends.

"Yeah, even Weiss," Ruby nodded, "even though she'll probably deny it."

"Probably…."

They both sat in silence for a little while, occasionally other students would pass by and glance at them, and then continue on their way so as not to disturb the two lovers.

Eventually Ruby broke the silence. "So...do you maybe wanna come by our room later? I was thinking we could have a little party or something. You know, give you one last good memory before my dad murders you?"

It was a sweet idea, even if the last bit had the word "murder" in it. Still, it was nice of her, and while Jaune couldn't think of the proper words to convey that, the kiss he planted on Ruby's lips he felt would suffice.

"It sounds good," he said. "Can the rest of my team come too?"

"Of course! It wouldn't be any fun without them. I also invited Team SSSN, by the way; I thought it'd be good to have a few more boys there."

"...I mean," he shrugged, "I grew up with seven sisters, I never minded hanging around you guys- er, _girls_ all the time."

"So is that why you scream like a girl, then?"

" _Hey_!" he squeaked.

Ruby giggled.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

As Taiyang stepped off the Bullhead and onto Beacon's landing platform he stopped for a moment to take the scene in; a wave of nostalgia washed over him as he beheld the magnificent spire that rose from the school's main building, memories of the first time he stepped off the airship flooding back into his mind. He'd been an eager young scamp back then, ready to take on the world and slay every Grimm he came across.

And, you know, back himself a hot girlfriend. Priorities after all.

After a moment of reminiscing he shook the memories away and headed towards the school; he had a mission, and he couldn't afford to get distracted.

It had been a couple months since he he'd seen his daughters at the Vytal Festival, and though he usually played the part of the happy bachelor in public he more than not would find himself lonely without the rest of his family. Both his daughters roomed at Beacon, and there was only so much that teaching at Signal Academy could distract him from how much he missed them.

So when Beacon's resident doctor called him and said that Ruby got knocked up by some degenerate hooligan it was the perfect excuse for him to visit his two precious angels.

...OK, what he _really_ wanted was to throttle the punk that though it was a good idea to take advantage of how naïve his Ruby could be at times and lay a single, disgusting finger on her, and the social visit was more of a fringe benefit in this case. And _maybe_ Dr. Nightengale hadn't been quite so incensed when she told him as he was now, but he was a parent; he knew how to read between the lines for something like this!

Regardless, he first needed to find where his his girls were and make sure they were otherwise safe, and _then_ go hunt down the punk that deflowered Ruby. (Provided Yang hadn't already done that; she was a good older sister that way.) Afterwards he'd probably take them out to dinner or something, or just hang around and get to know the rest of their team a little better, since he hadn't really had the opportunity during the Vytal Festival.

As he passed the statue of the Huntsmen he saw a small group of four or five students hanging around. It was rather late when he'd finally arrived so it was a bit unusual to see people milling about outside, but then again maybe they were like the Branwens and liked to enjoy the evening.

 _I wonder if they know where Ruby and Yang are? It'd definitely save me some time hunting them down on my own._

He quickly shifted directions towards the group but stopped in his his tracks before he reached them, just inside of earshot.

" _Bro, you gotta tell us!"_

" _Yeah man, what was it like?"_

" _Was she good?"_

" _Did she use her tongue?"_

" _What kind of underwear?"_

" _Did you get to feel her up? These are the details, man!"_

" _Guys, one at a time! Geez, you'd think I said I learned how to kill Grimm just by thinking it or something."_

" _Never mind that! Bro, you're in of the lucky few who got a restroom quickie from Ruby Rose; it's your_ duty _to tell the rest of us about it!"_

For a moment Taiyang's brain completely shut down. Can you blame him? It was either that or think about him 15 year old daughter giving blowjobs and "quickies" to a bunch of random boys (and girls, there was one in the group as well) in some grungy public restroom, and they was _not_ an image he wanted to think about!

Naturally he needed to get to the bottom of this, so he strode forward and tapped to one kid doing the explaining on their shoulder.

"...like holding a pair of- uh, can I help you?" he asked, turning to face Taiyang. His face betrayed his annoyance at getting interrupted.

"Actually, yes. That girl you're talking about? I was wondering if you happened to know where I could find her."

The boy scoffed. "Mister, if any of us knew for sure where to find her, there'd be a line a mile long of people waiting to get serviced by that little slut!"

Taiyang chuckled at this.

"Uh, what's so funny?"

"I think you kids may have misunderstood me," he said through his mirth. "You see, 'that little slut'-" He then shot out his arm and grabbed the boy by the front of his shirt and lifted him a foot and a half off the ground. Then he said in a low, dangerous voice, " _-she's my daughter_."

If the sight of a man lifting one of their own into the air wasn't frightening enough for the students, the sudden realization that they were talking about doing very 'adult' things with said man's daughter immediately drained all the color from their faces and sent them running, occasionally tripping over each other as they tried to escape the raging demon that now held one of their friends in its grasp.

"Now let me ask you again," Taiyang continued, "Where. Is. Ruby Rose?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" the boy wailed, "I didn't even do her, I was just saying that to look cool; I don't even know if she really does that kinda stuff, it's just a rumor! _You gotta believe me!_ "

For what must have seemed like forever to the poor, unfortunate soul Taiyang simply stared at him, looking like he wanted start punching and not stop for a good while, until the unthinkable happened and Taiyang actually set the boy down.

"If I _ever_ hear that you touch my daughter...there won't be a safe place left for you on all of Remnant, you got that?"

The boy nodded.

"Good." He jerked his head in the direction of the fleeing students, "Tell your friends they're off the hook...for now."

The boy nodded again and took off after his friends.

With that taken care of, Taiyang continued in his way into the main building to look for his girls, humming to himself.

"I wonder how everyone feels about _El Pizza Bandito's_ for dinner?" he wondered aloud.

 _to be continued…_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Well, things aren't looking too good for our intrepid heroes now, is it? Will Jaune soon be no more? Will Ruby have to endure the trials of being a single mother in an unforgiving world? WILL ZWEI EVER MAKE AN APPEARANCE IN THIS FIC? Find out next time on "Accidents Happen"!_

 _Sorry, couldn't resist being a little cheesy there._

 _Anyway, the dreaded encounter will happen next time, so don't y'all worry. I'm hard at work brainstorming how that's gonna go down._

 _But what about that Cardin scene, though. I wonder what that's going to lead to...? (And yes, I have a payoff for that down the line, just you wait!)_

 _In the mean time, I have a Tweeter (at "the_layman215"), a YouTubes ("The Layman") and a Twitch ("the layman") where I do stuff. Y'all should check it out. (My Tweeter is a good way to keep up to date with story progress.)_


	10. Justice is Served

**Justice is Served**

Both Teams RWBY and JNPR sat in RWBY's dorm room, all playing a rousing round of Remnant: The Game. Since only four people could play at once, they were divided up into teams of two.

"...well, that's my turn," Yang said. She was currently teamed up with Nora this game. "Your turn, Rubes."

Ruby grinned, scanning the card in her hand. For obvious reasons, she and Jaune were playing together. After quickly showing them to Jaune- who nodded- she played a card. "I'll play this, which lets me pick a random card from one of your hands. And I chose…." She scanned each of the others pairs, eventually settling on Pyrrha and Ren. "...yours." Reluctantly, Pyrrha held out her cards for Ruby to pick one.

"You're taking this awfully well," Weiss pointed out. "You know, considering you believe your father's going to kill Jaune."

"Actually...yeah, you are," it suddenly dawned on Yang. She laid her and Nora's card down and leaned forward, placing the back of her hand on Ruby's forehead. "You feeling OK, sis?"

"I'm _fine, Yang_!" She swatted her sister's hand away before adding her newest acquisition to her hand. "Look, I've got it all figured out; Dad's not going to kill Jaune when he gets here."

"Oh? And how exactly do you figure that?"

"Yeah, you seemed pretty distraught earlier when he called," Blake pointed out. She currently held the cards for her and Weiss.

"It's simple; Dr. Nightengale said I'd start getting more emotional around now, so I just overreacted to him saying he'd be coming here to see us," she explained. "Besides, he didn't actually _say_ he was going to kill anyone, so he's probably just feeling a little lonely and wanted to come visit." After moving her pieces around the board she continued, "So instead of a 'say goodbye to Jaune' party, we can just hang out and have fun!" It really was the more likely scenario and not just the fact that she was secretly hoping against hope that her dad wouldn't be so…"dad" when he got here. Until then, Ruby was determined to keep a happy face for the sake of her friends, sister, and boyfriend, not necessarily in that order.

"Well, that's certainly good news," Pyrrha said. She sounded genuinely relieved by the news. "I don't know what the rest of us would do without our Team Leader."

"Psh, we'd be _fine!_ " Nora waved dismissively as as she rolled the dice, "I mean, it's not like we switch to some _new_ leader and just completely forget the old one! We're not mean like that, we'd still totally-! Uh. Pyrrha?"

"Yes, Nora?"

She pointed to the cards her teammate was holding. "...I think they're already dead."

For some reason Pyrrha was smiling faintly, acting like she wasn't totally crushed her cards.

"I don't know what you mean," she said cordially, still smiling.

"Well, I hope you're right about this," Yang sighed, "because I personally don't wanna see Dad angry again; the last time was more than enough."

"...what happened last time?" Ren asked slowly.

She turned to the gunslinger of JNPR. "I was still pretty young at the time, so I don't really remember a lot of the specifics. What I _do_ remember is sitting with Uncle Qrow and Ruby in our dad's room while he yelled at someone downstairs." She rubbed her shoulder, "Up to that point I'd never even heard him raise his voice; it was scarier than- ...something else that happened recently."

When she finished there was an awkward silence that hung over the group.

"I understand," he said, after which he busies himself with free the cards for Pyrrha's iron grip.

"Anyway, that's my turn," Ruby said, trying to lighten the mood again, "And don't worry, Yang, Dad didn't sound mad when he called, so I think everything's gonna be fine!" She passed the dice to Weiss and Blake.

"I'm glad _someone_ feels that way," Jaune spoke up, looking a little unsure, "I've felt like someone's walking over my grave and stomping on it."

Ruby leaned back and gave Jaune a small kiss. "Well, I'll be right here to protect you, so you don't have to worry about anything!"

" _Aren't they sweet?_ " asked Pyrrha, her eyebrow twitching a little.

" _Oh,_ totally _!"_ a new voice said from the doorway, " _Reminds me a little bit of Summer, actually."_

Ruby couldn't control the squeak that involuntarily escaped her mouth.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _This is bad, this is really, really, really, REALLY bad!_ went through Ruby's mind upon seeing her father standing in the doorway, _Why is he here? Does he know? Oh gawd, I_ really _hope he's only here to remind me and Yang to wear clean underwear…._

" _Dad_?" she and Yang exclaimed in unison.

"You're here...early?" she pointed out.

Taiyang chuckled. "Well, after I talked with you two yesterday I just couldn't wait to see you again.

"And _boy_ , are my arms tired from the flight over, let me tell you!" He said this to the group at large, punctuating the corny statement with finger guns.

While everyone else sent blank stares the Huntsman's way, Ruby couldn't help but chuckle nervously at the joke. "Yeah, heh heh...good one, Dad…." To the side Yang and Weiss face palmed.

"Anyway," he continued, tossing the rucksack he was holding onto Weiss and Ruby's bunk bed as he stepped into the room, "what've you been up to since the Vytal Festival; eating right, keeping up with your grades, making sure to wear clean underwear?"

"Uh, I've-"

"Letting some punk knock you up?"

Whatever response she had died a very quick death under Taiyang's piercing gaze.

Fortunately Jaune stepped between her and her father, saving her from coming up with an excuse in the spot. (She thought she'd have more time before he got here to think of something.) "Look, Mr. Xiao-Long-"

Whatever Jaune was going to say died a quick death when, faster than any of them could make out, Taiyang grabbed hold of Jaune's shirt and tossed him into the wall next to the bunks.

"...well?" he asked like he _hadn't_ just launched Jaune aside like it was nothing, "I'm waiting, young lady."

She gulped. "Um, uh…."

"Who was it?"

Ruby hopes she wasn't sweating as much as it felt like she was. She never kept secrets from her dad (she used to blab about what "surprise" she and Yang got him for his birthday), and the pressure of one as big as this was only magnified by Taiyang's expectant look; she could only endure so much before her resolve began to crack.

"...i-it wasn't his fault, OK?" she blurted out as Team JNPR went to check on their fallen leader, "I was the one who ask if we could…'make love', I wasn't seduced or taken advantage of-"

"What's his name?"

Gulp again.

"It was Sun Wukong," Weiss suddenly spoke up, stepping in front of her team leader defensively, "he's this Faunus rapscallion from Haven who refuses to wear a shirt properly-"

A pillow to the side of her head cut Weiss off.

"Stop being so disrespectful!" Blake shouted, the one who threw said pillow. She turned to Taiyang, "It was a boy called Neptune Vasillias, Mr. Xiao-Long. Ruby fell for his charm-"

" _You leave my boyfriend out if this, Belladonna!_ " Weiss shrieked. She grabbed the pillow Blake tree at her and tossed it back, only for Blake to dodge out of the way at the last second. It instead flew into Yang, who ripped it off her face and glared angrily at her two teammates, her eyes turning red.

"Will _both of you_ stop trying to throw each others' boyfriend under the bus?" she demanded, "I can't believe you two pick _now_ of all times to be so petty!"

Both girls had the good sense to look ashamed at their recent actions.

"Anyway, Dad," Yang turned back to her father, her eyes returning to their normal lilac, "the boy you want is Cardin Winchester-"

" _Guys_!" Jaune called from the bed, finally returning to consciousness. "You can stop now."

Ruby looked over at the scraggly Huntsman in training, tears welling up in her eyes: she knew exactly what Jaune was going to do.

"Jaune, please, just let us handle this," she pleaded, "You guys should probably go back to your room, we'll…we'll..." She couldn't think of a good argument for JNPR to get a head start.

"I appreciate it," he said, "but I should own up to my actions." He hopped off the bed and walked up to Taiyang, putting an arm around Ruby's shoulder. He spoke with confidence, "Mr. Xiao-Long, Ruby and I love each other, and we decided to express it physically. I understand if you don't approve of her doing that, but neither of us can really take it back, especially now that she's pregnant. And personally, I want be there for her and our kid." She couldn't remember him being unashamedly steadfast before, and Ruby couldn't help but swoon a little at the sentiment. "So, whatever you're going say to me, go ahead. I've said my piece."

" _Man, Jaune suddenly grew a pair,"_ she heard Yang whisper, and she couldn't rightly disagree.

"Oh, I want to punch you, kid," Taiyang said, cracking his knuckles, "not talk; talking doesn't make you wish you never thought about touching my daughter."

"Dad, _please_!" This was bad, like, _really_ bad; pretty much the very thing she worried would happen was currently coming to pass in about the way she imagined it would. She moved between Jaune and her dad.

"Sweetie, Daddy just needs to beat this kid up within an inch of his life, and then we can all go out to _El Pizza Bandito's_ , my treat. Wadaya say?"

It was clear that Taiyang wasn't going to back down from wanting to hurt Jaune. Yang probably realized this already, hence why she didn't get involved more than she already had, but Ruby wasn't going to give up; she loved Jaune, and she wasn't going to let anyone, including her father, take him away from her and her child. In lieu of answering her father's question, she wrapped her arms around the scraggly, blonde Huntsman. "I'm not leaving him," she told her dad, "and I'm not letting you hurt him either!"

"Young lady-!" He was cut off as she continued.

"And if do, I'll, I'll…." She struggled get her next words out. "...I'll run away with Jaune and you'll never see your grandkid!"

This drew gasps from everyone in the room, including Taiyang.

" _Um...that seems a little drastic, don't you think?_ ," Jaune whispered.

" _Jaune, I'd rather live with you on the run than see you hurt,_ " she whispered back. " _And I want our kid to grow up with both parents._ " She didn't say how she never had that herself growing up, though it didn't stop the tears from leaking out at the thought. She didn't _want_ to cut her dad out of her life, for _any_ reason, but it hurt more to think of life apart from Jaune, so she was willing to take such a drastic action.

"Mr. Xiao-Long," Weiss eventually spoke up, managing to snap Taiyang out of his fugue state, "I get that you love Ruby a lot, and you want what's best for her. Well-" she gestured to the adorkable, hugging couple, "-I don't think I've ever seen Ruby happier than she is with Jaune, or Jaune with her. It's clear that they both love each other, and even the baby didn't change that despite some initial worry, so punishing either of them won't accomplish anything."

"Weiss…!" Ruby teared up even more at her partner's sentiment.

Taiyang looked conflicted. "But...she's my little girl…."

"Kids grow up," Blake said plainly, "sometimes sooner than anyone expects."

He was about to argue more when Yang grabbed his hand. "Just let this one go, Dad. Please?"

As Taiyang's thoughts played out visibly over his face Ruby felt the anticipation and dread of his decision build up inside her; she didn't know if she could keep her emotions in check right now, and she couldn't but think of all the worst possible outcomes for this conversation, which didn't really help matters. She hugged Jaune a little tighter, waiting for her father to make up his mind. While this was going the rest of Team JNPR came over and put their hands on Jaune's shoulder, Nora opting to hug the both of them.

Eventually Taiyang turned to his daughter, his expression unreadable. "...whose baby is it?" he asked.

While not an answer she was dressing, it still didn't make her any less worried. "It's Jaune's," she said, "why would it be anyone else's?"

"You're _sure_ it wasn't one of the others'?"

"What 'others'?" Jaune was the only boy she'd even slept with, what was her dad talking about?

"I think he means the people who claim to have 'conquered' Ruby," Pyrrha explained when everyone looked confused, "there's been a rumor going around Beacon that she gives sexual favors to the other students if they can find her."

" _What!?"_ Weiss, Yang and Jaune exclaimed in unison.

"For how long?" Blake asked.

"Um...the past couple weeks?" the champion supplied, nervously bopping her pointer fingers together like Ruby usually did. "I only learned about it yesterday."

"See!?" Ruby gestured towards the red headed girl, "There aren't any 'others', it's just me and Jaune!" She then turned to her paramour, "Right?"

"Uh, r-right!" he stuttered, "Ruby and I only have eyes for each other…?"

Ruby glanced back at her dad, hoping the assurance that she wasn't a tramp had pacified him enough so they could explained things to him properly. He looked thoughtful, and after a few seconds the tension seemed to drain out of him as he relaxed and let his arms hang loose.

"Can you answer one thing for me?" he asks, sounding more weary than he did before, "You don't have a...you're still healthy, right?"

She nodded vigorously. "Yeah, totally!" She detached herself from Jaune and went over to hug her father. "...so you're not going to kill Jaune?"

"Sweetie, I wasn't going to kill him," he hugged her back, "I had to learn about you from the doctor, and the first thing I heard after getting hear was about you giving 'quickies' in the bathrooms; you can understand how I be a little emotional after that."

The tears that she'd been holding back this whole time finally broke free, leaving damp trails down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she said, choking up a little, "I was scared and I thought you'd try to hurt Jaune, which you kinda did…." Sniff. "...I just didn't want our kid to grow up without both their parents." Taiyang gave her shoulders a tiny squeeze.

"It's alright, Sweetie," he comforted. "I may not like that this happened, but I'm never going to stop loving you; your kid's gonna grow up with two loving parents watching out for them."

"Thank- _*hic*_ , thanks…."

"Thanks, Dad," Yang said as she joined in the hug.

"Thanks Mr. Xiao-Long-" Jaune tried to join the family hug as well, only to be stopped by Taiyang's extended hand. " _Oof_!"

"Don't get me wrong, Son," the man said to Jaune, "I'm not gonna hurt you...but that still doesn't mean I'm too keen on the thought of you sticking your privates in my daughter."

" _DAD!"_

"Oh my _gawd_ , Dad!"

"You and I need to have a _serious_ talk about the rest of your life with Ruby," he continued, "and I can't think of a better time to have that talk that over a piping hot pie from _El Pizza Bandito's_!" Without warning he grabbed Jaune by the wrist and dragged him out of the room, the poor boy stumbling along after him.

Needless to say, everyone was pretty much speechless.

"That...actually explains a lot," commented Weiss, the first to recover.

Then he suddenly poked his head back in the doorway, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" He tossed a cylinder at Weiss, who fumbled with it for a moment before she caught it. That done, he disappeared again.

"...thanks?" Ruby called feebly after him. She was still a little concerned for Jaune's well being, but right now she was a bit more interested in the care package Taiyang had left them. (He said he wasn't going to hurt Jaune, and he didn't lie, so they'd be fine for a while.) She detached herself from Yang and went over to Weiss, who was now turning the cylinder over in her hands. "I wonder what Dad gave us this time?"

"With how he was acting when he came in, probably a chastity belt," Yang remarked, joining her sister.

"Ooh, I hope it's food!" Nora chimed in, "Cuz I could go for some snacks right about now; I haven't had anything to eat since dinner!"

"Somehow, I don't think it's food."

"I doubt it's a chastity belt either," Weiss remarked. "Giving how they're supposed to work it would be impossible to fit in that kind of package, and I _highly_ doubt your father could afford anything more than a cheap novelty from an adult toy store."

It didn't take her long to noticed the six pairs of wide, horrified eyes staring at her.

"...what? My father tried to get one for Winter when she was Ruby's age; he made my younger brother and I come with him when he went looking for one."

" _Ohhh…!_ " everyone nodded.

"I thought those were just things they used in old stories," Nora commented quizzically.

"No," Weiss shook her head, "they're _definitely_ real." A haunted look crossed her face.

Yang waved her hand in front of the heiress's face. "Uh, Weiss? You OK?"

While everyone fussed over Weiss, Ruby took the cylinder and sat down on on hers and Weiss's bunk bed, trying to work the package open. Given how her dad usually was it was probably something from all their friends back on Patch; she'd tried to write to them as much as she could, though with the Vytal Festival and the Tournament she'd sadly fallen out of the habit of writing out a letter every week. It made her a little sad to think about, but on the other hand her friends hadn't really wrote back, so if this really was from them then-

The lid suddenly popped open, startling her out of her thoughts. This drew the attention of the others, including Weiss (who snapped out of her traumatic memories at Ruby's squeal), who all joined Ruby in staring at the dark, furry head that now poking out the cylinder.

"Zwei!" she exclaimed as the dog popped the rest of the way out of the parcel, "What are you doing here, boy? I thought you went back home with Dad after the Tournament?"

"He's...back?" Blake said through gritted teeth, "Oh, that's just...great; _I missed him so much…!_ "

"Oh hush, you!" Weiss brushed past her Faunus teammate and scooped the corgi up in her arms. "How could anyone _not_ miss this adorable, wooby little angel?" She started giving Zwei nosies.

"' _Wooby'_?" Nora wondered.

"Maybe there's a letter explaining why he's back?" suggested Pyrrha.

Per Pyrrha's suggestion Ruby turned the cylinder over and shook it a little, in case a letter was stuck inside. Like last time a small mountain of dog food cans spilled out, along with an opener. After she stopped shaking a piece of paper chose that moment to fall out. Yang picked it up and read it aloud.

"' _Dear girls, I heard about what happened, so I'm sending Zwei back to you; I'm sure Ruby could use as much comfort as she can after such a traumatic incident, and I figured he could help you find and maul the degenerate scum that did this to her. XOXO, Dad.'_ " She then crumpled it up and tossed it over her shoulder, somehow managing to sink it in a wastebasket. "Well, at least he tried to do _something_ nonviolent."

"I suppose it's the thought that counts," Ren mused.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Even if that thought was murder?" she asked, to which the stoic boy just shrugged.

"Sooo…," Nora drawled, "...he didn't send _any_ snacks?"

 _to be continued…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _So firstly, apologies for the long wait in between this chapter and the last; Life didn't particularly align in a way that was conducive to write, plus I_ may _have gotten distracted a couple times...so going forward this will probably be the norm; a couple sizable chapters per month with a couple weeks between each. (If I had more free time in my schedule I'd be inclined to write a bit more, but with bills to pay….)_

 _Anyway, that was a harrowing meeting, wasn't it? I'm glad Taiyang decided to give Jaune a Stay of Execution, but whether it'll last or not only time will tell….But hey, Zwei showed up! So there's that._

 _I'm not gonna lie, this chapter was pretty tough to write, mostly for plotting reasons; keeping a healthy balance between the expected drama of the situation and moments of levity, while juggling the fact that I'm trying to write good prose, keep everyone in character,_ and _potentially set things up for later in the story? A lot more nuances there than one would initially think. (I think I managed to pull it together, but that's for y'all to decide.)_

 _And for those wondering, the thing with Taiyang isn't technically resolved yet; it's going to persist through more of the story before the actual resolution takes place._

 _Anyway, in the meantime you can check me out on Twitch ("the_layman") where I play games, in YouTube ("The Layman") where I keep my old streams and make videos about RWBY, or on Twitter (" the_layman215") where I post Fanfiction updates and retweet RWBY fanart, and where you can talk to me directly._

 _So next time...I dunno, I'm still planning it out._


	11. Qrow is Elsewhere

**Qrow is Elsewhere**

 _At the same time, in Mistral._

If there was a gun to his head and someone asked him which of the four Kingdoms he preferred over the others, Qrow would immediately answer with whichever one his family was in. He honestly didn't care much for the Kingdoms themselves; each had its own flaws to counterbalance its strengths, but one thing he would never count as a flaw were his brother in law and his two nieces, and they always served to put his opinion over the top.

He was currently wandering around Mistral, mostly going from tavern to tavern with no particular goal in mind. It was something of a well deserved vacation, especially given how the Vytal Festival had ended; to say that it ended "some what hectically" was grossly understating what actually happened, but it had been dealt with, and the bad guys were behind bars, so now he was taking it easy for a bit.

As he swirled the amber liquid he spared a glance at the cute waitress who was going around the tables, making sure the patrons had full glasses. Her hair was done up in a bun that was held together with chopsticks, and under a fairly utilitarian apron her burgundy and gold qipao just barely reached her shapely thighs. He chuckled to himself and knocked the rest of his drink back.

 _Hmm, wonder if she's seeing anyone?_ he thought to himself, though he dismissed it a moment later. He was just one big, giant mess of bad luck, who was he to let any of that spill over into the poor girl?

"Hey," he called, waving the young woman down, "top up?" He held up his glass, shaking it a little for emphasis. She nodded and signed that she'd be right over with a new glass.

While she was busy he scanned over the other patrons. Judging by their manner of dress most of the were probably locals who came in regularly, with a few out-of-towners (like himself) and unsavory types scattered about, though no one who looked liable to start something. Which was fine, he didn't feel like continuing anything that might've gotten started.

"Sorry about the wait," the waitress said as she walked over to Qrow's table and set another glass down in front of him, "Can I get you anything else?"

"I think I'm good for now." He took sip of his new drink. ...yep, still alcoholic. "Just keep 'em coming." He gave her a sly wink, "There might be a good tip in it for you." She giggled and said "OK then", and continued making her rounds to the other tables.

 _...nice hips,_ he mused as the waitress walked off.

So what if he was a little bit of a letch? So were a lot of other people!

Qrow nursed his drink a little while longer, then downed the rest in one gulp and headed up to his room, intent on sleeping the rest of the night. Whatever the next day had in store did him, it could wait until he got some shuteye in.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Everywhere around him Vale was on fire, flames rising higher than most buildings, licking at the red sky with angry tongues. And he was in the middle of it all, running as fast as he could to reach his niece who was trapped under some rubble that hadn't caught fire yet despite everything else having already done so. No matter how fast he tried to run he didn't seem to get any closer to her, and there was a small Taijitu slithering towards her that she could probably take care of by herself under normal circumstances but right now she was trapped and he needed to get to her. She was The Solution, she needed to live! The snake like Creature of Grimm continued making its way towards Ruby, passing through the flames in the ground as though they weren't even there, suddenly crawling up her neck, ready to strike. He tried to call out to her, but the flames kept interrupting him._

 _Then the Taijitu struck, engulfing the young girl's body in flames._

 _He held her burned corpse in his arms, Tai's cabin slowly falling apart as it burned. Tears poured from his eyes, sizzling as they splashed on her ruined flesh. "I'm sorry…," he whispered, holding her remains close, "I should have done more…."_

" _Oh, I don't know about that," Cinder smirked up at him, "I think I'll be fine-"_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Qrow shot up in a cold sweat, his heart racing a mile a minute. It took him a moment before he realized he was still in his room above the tavern; he wasn't in Vale or Tai's cabin, nothing was burning, and most importantly, Ruby hadn't turned into Cinder Fall in his arms.

He didn't even want to _think_ about what that last point might say about him….

" _Been sleeping well, brother?"_ an unmistakably familiar voice said from his left. Without even looking he knew who it was.

"Raven, long time, no see." He shifted his position so he was sitting properly. "What took you so long?"

"I got held up," the dark woman said, not elaborating. She'd pulled up the room's sole chair and was straddling it backwards. "Why weren't you waiting downstairs like you said you'd be?"

"I got bored," he responded in kind. Internally he was chuckling; if his sister was going to be coy then so was he, she usually loosened up after a few rounds of this. "Frankly, I'm surprised you chose to show up at all, considering your 'hands off' approach to family."

To her credit Raven didn't rise to the bait. "You said this was important?" she asked, cutting straight to the point.

 _Heh, typical Raven…._

"I figured you'd want an update on what's been going on in Vale lately. You know, since you can't seem to get reception where you normally are."

Again, no outward reaction. "...I'm listening."

"Someone tried to disrupt the Vytal Festival," he began, "during the finale parade, if you can believe it."

"...is it safe?" she asked.

"Well, yeah. I mean, we stopped the person responsible before anyone got hurt-"

"Cut the bullshit," Raven cut in, "you know that wasn't what I meant." She leaned forward as much as her perch would allow, her eyes narrowing. " _Is. It. Safe?_ "

 _Geez, Sis, when'd you get a_ second _stick lodged up your ass?_

"...if you mean the Relic then yes, 'it' is safe. At the very least 'she' doesn't have it yet." He swung his legs over the side of the bed. Apparently he wasn't going to get any more sleep tonight (this morning…?), so he might as well start getting ready for his travels once the sun rose. "Oh, and since I know you're just _dying_ to know, your daughter is doing well. Even managed to be the first runner up in the Tournament." He didn't even pretend to hide the knowing look he sent his sister's way, "Seems like some congratulations are in order, wouldn't you say, _Mom_?"

She matched his look with her own glare.

"You know I'm right."

"I know you're dodging the important subjects," she rebutted, "I have the Tribe to worry about, and if there's even the slightest chance that 'she' has one in her possession-"

"Don't you think we'd _know_ if she did?" God dammit, his twin sister could be so hard headed sometimes, never stepped back from her own responsibilities to look at the bigger picture and read between the cracks. And, of course, the fact that she didn't seem to care _one bit_ about about very girl _she_ brought into the world…!

"Frustrating" didn't quite cover it.

"Look," he continued, "if you don't care about anything beyond your own priorities that's fine, but you should at least tell one of those priorities to her face that you don't love her."

For a moment Raven said nothing, holding her glare on her brother.

"...is that all?" she asked eventually.

"I guess it is." He more than anyone knew how stubborn Raven could be, so there wasn't really a point pushing things any further. As she stood up to leave he asked "Anything you want me to tell Yang when I see her?"

She drew one of her katana blades, slashing a pulsating red hole in space. She replaced the Grimm mask she wore over her head.

"Tell her to come in first next time." And with that she stepped into the portal, the anomaly collapsing behind her a second later.

Qrow just shook his head as he climbed out of bed a minute or so later. Despite all her edgelord posturing there was still a small part of Raven that still cared about Yang, even if it was in a backhanded way.

"At least she didn't say 'No'...," he mused, gathering up his things. His 'things' really only equated to his weapon, since he usually just slept in his clothes- a habit from years of traveling on foot- and some other odds and ends that were kept on his person.

Once everything was in hand he headed down to the bar to grab a bite to eat before heading back out on the road. After the conversation with his sister he was feeling an overwhelming desire to "cleanse his palette", so to speak. He'd already been around Mistral, and he _really_ didn't want to pay Atlas a visit any sooner than he absolutely needed to. And if Vacuo wasn't in the middle of its dry season he would have headed there without a second thought.

 _Eh, might as well check in with Tai and the girls,_ he reasoned, _can't hurt to add another surprise visit to the schedule._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Three weeks later…_

"Gimme a sec," he said, uncapping his flask and tilting it back, letting the contents wash down the back of his throat like a waterfall.

Ruby's already apprehensive look got worse. "Y-you see, it's-"

He held up a finger, still gulping his alcohol down.

"Give him a sec," Yang advised, putting a hand on her younger sister's shoulder. The three of them were sitting in the outdoor patio of an _El Pizza Bandito's_ , (Ruby said she felt nauseous inside the building), his nieces catching him up on what had happened since the end of the Vytal Festival.

More than he was expecting to hear, apparently.

Once the vessel was empty he smacked his lips while screwing the cap back on. "OK," he said, "so...you and that scraggly kid I saw you with had sex?"

"Uh huh," Ruby nodded timidly; he could tell Tai already knew about this.

"And now you're gonna have his kid?"

"Yeah, pretty much…." She poked her fingers together.

Seeing Ruby fidget nervously in front of him reminded him of when she was still a toddler; she'd always get shy when someone other than Yang would ask her a question, and that only stopped with him when she learned that he was more or less the same as the heroes in her story books. She'd always been an adorable girl who refused to grow up, sometimes to her detriment, but it was still one of the few things in the world that remained constant.

And to now see that same girl who tried to hang off his arm when she saw him during the Vytal Festival only a few months ago suddenly become a woman and a mother….

 _...dammit, I should_ not _be getting too old for this already!_

When he shook himself out of his thoughts he saw that Ruby was still staring ar him with expectation and dread, her silver eyes glistening.

"...well?"

"Well what?"

" _Well_ , what do you think of _this_?" Yang clarified, gesturing to her sister, "You're like the last person in the _planet_ who doesn't know about this yet."

"Pretty much…," he heard Ruby mumble under her breath.

"...what _I_ think is that I'm gonna need more whiskey," he sighed, holding up his now empty flask. So much for relaxing…. "Not gonna lie, I'll be surprised if I live through the night after hearing this…."

At Ruby's look of confusion he elaborated, "I'm not mad, if that's what you're wondering; not really any point when all's said and done. Can't really say I'm _happy_ about it either, but I trust that you didn't go into this without giving it a lot of thought beforehand." He rested a knee against their table, "Besides, I'm sure your dad gave you the 'worried parent' routine."

He was fully expecting his niece to leap across the table and try ("try" being the operative word here) to destroy him in a spine crushing hug, and as such he was ready to get tackled by the extra weight. However, what ended up happening was that Ruby got up and walked around the table, clinging to him in a much more gentle embrace than he was expecting.

 _Right, she's pregnant now. ...been awhile since I've had to deal with this._

Yang also joined in on the hug, coming in on his other side with the strength of an Ursa Major; it seemed some things would never change.

"Thanks, Uncle Qrow!" Ruby said.

"Yeah, no problem, kiddo." He wrapped an arm around her and rubbed the back of her head.

He was glad Ruby seemed to be handling the whole "being pregnant" thing well, especially she was barely sixteen yet. ( _Oh yeah, her birthday's coming up soon…_ ) He'd seen his fair share of teenage mothers throughout Remnant in his travels, some decently well off and some not, and took a moment to silently thank whatever god was in charge of childbirth that they'd gone east in his niece so far; Summer's pregnancy had been fairly low key and Raven's was... _tumultuous_ at best.

His mind briefly thought of what _Yang's_ pregnancy would be like, and he shuddered for Remnant's safety.

"So how long are you staying?" Yang asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Probably just a couple days," he said, "if I know Ozpin there's gonna be _something_ he gets worked up about that I'll have to fix for him." He have a wry smirk, "You know how grownups are: a bunch of big babies." Both girls chuckled at this.

"Anyway, where's that Jaune kid? I might as well get to know our newest family member while I'm here."

Ruby scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Well, he's…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

All things considered, Ren could be having a better time than he currently was. Which wasn't to say he didn't want to help his friend and team leader out, but….

"OK," he said, making sure he had Jaune's attention, "you hold a baby like this-" he held one of Nora's stuffed animals as a visual aid "-with one arm underneath and their head resting in your elbow for support; it'll take a while for them to- ...Nora, why do you have that camera?"

"Because Jaune needs reference materials," the bubbly ginger girl explained, a manic grin on her face as she snapped photo after photo, "you aren't always gunna be around to help him remember, you know."

"Meaning...what?"

Nora nodded at Jaune, " _Meaning_...he and Ruby need their special 'alone time' occasionally, and I don't think they want you watching that."

Both Ren and Jaune flushed crimson.

"Fair point…," he sighed, trying to ignore the clocking and flashing that now resumed. He turned back to his team leader, "Any questions so far?"

"Yeah," the young expecting father said, "...is anyone concerned about Pyrrha? She's been acting kinda weird lately."

Ren knew what Jaune meant; for the past week or so their celebrity teammate had been acting, for lack of a better phrase, "out of character"; she seemed to cling to Jaune more than she usually did, and several times she appeared to cut in front of Ruby to either say or ask something to Jaune, only to sincerely apologize to the young mother when she realized what happened. In addition to several other small, seemingly insignificant things he assumed had just gone over Jaune's head, she seemed to go out of her way to drop innuendos into her speech.

He was actually beginning to wonder if Jaune was going to pick up on any of it.

"It _was_ a little weird when she 'tripped' right into Jaune's arms during that practice match in Ms. Goodwitch's class the other day…," Nora mused, taking a short break from snapping pictures to change the film in her camera.

It was, but anyone with eyes could tell that the red headed girl had _clearly_ done it on purpose.

"And how she keeps forgetting that Ruby's around."

"Yes, Nora-"

"Not to mention the way she was eating that ice cream bar earlier-"

" _Thank you_ , Nora," Ren put his foot down, "I think we're all aware now." He put the pretend baby down and focused on his team leader, "Not to sound rude, but are you just noticing this now?"

Jaune shook his head. "No, I noticed...but I thought I was just seeing things because, um...hormones."

" _Dude_ , _Fox Alist_ _ai_ _r_ can see what Pyrrha's doing, and he's blind!" Nora exclaimed. She set down her camera and hopped onto her bed, sitting cross legged.

"I know, and I'm glad it's not just me. I just…." Jaune gesticulated wildly with his hands, as though trying sort through the words he was struggling with. After a second or two he gave up and let his arms go limp. "I just can't figure out _why_ she's acting like this."

If Ren were Weiss, he would have smacked his head and complained about how much of a dolt Jaune was. He knew _exactly_ why Pyrrha acting "sexy"; she had feelings for Jaune, it was one of the biggest public secrets of Beacon, and she was clearly frustrated that he was paying more attention to Ruby than her. He would have taken her aside and called her out in it- Jaune and Ruby were practically inseparable now, and she'd missed her chance- but she always seemed genuinely unaware of what she was doing.

Besides, he honestly wasn't much better at understanding girls than Jaune was, despite having loved with one for years. Hell, when it came to giving advice his biggest contribution to solving Jaune's dilemma asking Weiss to the Dance was affirming his own brotherly love for him.

Thankfully, Nora came to the rescue. "Why not just ask her?" she wondered.

The thought probably crossed Jaune's mind already, judging by the look of resignation on his face.

"It... _complicated_ ," he said.

" _What's complicated?"_ Pyrrha asked, having just emerged from the room's small bathroom.

Whatever response any of them had died a quick death when they saw the state their Mistrali teammate was in. Namely that the only thing protecting her modesty was the towel she was wrapped in (the one wrapped around her hair didn't really count in that regard), though it didn't stop one of her shapely legs from showing up to her hip.

"Uh...b-babies?" Jaune fibbed.

"...oh. I suppose that makes sense." She walked over to their dresser and opened one of the bottom draws, bending over to retrieve her pajamas. "Don't mind me, I forgot to bring these with me before."

This had the unfortunate side effect of nearly presenting her backside to her fellow teammates.

Now Ren _did_ allow his hand to impact his face. _This is going to be a looooong evening…._

 _to be continued…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _For those who may not have picked up on it, this chapter is basically an "inbetweenqual" to give the characters a little breather, as well as explain a little of where this is supposed to take place in time. To summarize: this story takes place in a timeline where the events of Volume 3 didn't happen like they did in the show, and the bad guys' plan didn't succeed. (Things basically played out like in my fic "Distorted Mirror Images", though in this fic the alternate Rubies and things related to them will not be referenced.) The events of RWBY Volume 4 As Ruby's pregnancy progresses, events will diverge even more from Canon._

 _Anywho, I finally figured out how to let Qrow know that his niece is preggers. (Now I just need to create and then inform Jaune's family that he finally became a man and is expecting a child soon…) Check_ that _off my to do list…._

 _But Pyrrha though, amiright? Methinks she's not really handling losing Jaune to Ruby all that well. (Shocking absolutely no one.) Someone's gonna have to confront her at some point about this, or else things might get to the point where a lot of people get hurt emotionally._

 _Also, Ren teaching Jaune about babies._

 _Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter before the end of the month, and_ possibly _a Halloween themed one shot? Maybe? (Let me know if y'all want to see that.) In the meantime, follow on Twitch (the_layman) for vidja gaems, YouTube (The Layman) for me geeking about RWBY, and Tweeter (at the_layman215) for just me; I retweet a lot of fun and interesting stuff._

 _Next time...how about we check in on Ruby and see how pre-motherhood is treating her?_


	12. Pregnancy is VERY taxing

_To address some reviews I've gotten recently; don't worry, I'll deal with the Pyrrha subplot soon. Most like it'll happen in the next couple chapters, but no promises._

 _Anyway, back to the story. Please enjoy._

 **Pregnancy is VERY taxing.**

 _One week later…_

" _Yaaaaaaaaaaang_!" Ruby whined from their dorm's bathroom, " _I'm_ faaaaaaaaat!"

Yang sighed for the umpteenth time that day; Ruby had been like this since before their Uncle Qrow paid his visit, worrying about seemingly insignificant things like they were suddenly life threatening. Yesterday it had been that she thought there they wouldn't have enough ice cream for when her craving started to manifest, to which she, Weiss and Jaune assured her that it wouldn't be a problem for a good while yet.

God bless Dr. Nightengale for making sure _all of them_ knew what to expect throughout the pregnancy.

"You're not fat, Ruby," Yang called back, reclining up on her bunk. She was currently browsing the news in her Scroll. _Hmm...boring, boring...oh, there's been a lot fewer attacks from the White Fang, that's a good thing. Let's see...just speculation, boring! ...huh, looks like Vacuo's gonna be hosting the Vytal Festival next time-_

" _Yes I_ aaaaaaaaaam!" Ruby protested, " _Come look!_ "

Yang sighed and tucked the device away, hoping down to the floor. The scenario wasn't exactly foreign to her; when Ruby first started attending Signal Accademy she'd come home one complaining about the other girls in her class were all in better shape than she was. Their dad just happened to be out at the time, so she sat her sister down and told that all the training _she_ put her through, plus Uncle Qrow's, would have toughened her more than enough to keep up with the other kids.

However, "I'm fat" on its own was a new one.

"OK, I'm coming in," she said as she grasped the door handle. She opened it gingerly, damp air leaking out. Sliding inside she made sure the door closed behind her; Yang was fairly certain her sister wouldn't want to accidentally flash her teammates, even if it was nothing the other girls weren't already familiar with. "What's the matter, Rubes?"

Ruby was sitting in the toilet seat, looking despondent. She must have been sitting there for a while after she finished her shower, because while still damp, there were dry patches in her hair. Once Yang had shut the door she stood up, holding her towel against her chest. "Look," she said, poking her side.

"...OK," Yang wondered, "what am I looking at?"

" _This_!" She poked harder, her finger sinking ever so slightly into her flesh.

It wasn't much, but Yang knew from personal experience that merely saying that wouldn't erase her sister's worries. "Didn't Dr. N say this was going to happen anyway?"

"Yeah...b-but I thought that was when the baby started getting bigger!" She slumped to the floor, "I don't wanna look like an apple!"

Yang knelt next to her sister and put an arm around her shoulder. "You're not gonna look like an apple, Ruby," she assured her sister, rubbing her shoulder gently, "you just...need to be a bit more active." For about a month Ruby had been complaining that she was feeling tired (something of a shock coming from someone who may as well be the physical personification of a sugar rush) which often resulted in her being excuse from the more strenuous class activities. And this apparently had the unfortunate side effect of letting some of the weight she must have gained from eating so much recently take hold. "You're going into see Dr. N tomorrow, so why don't we ask her about what kinds of exercises you can do to stay in shape?"

Ruby pondered this for a moment. "OK," she nodded, "that's a good idea." She turned around to hug Yang-

 _*gurgle!*_

Yang raised an eyebrow. "...was that your stomach?"

"Um...maaaaybe?" Ruby poked her fingers together.

"Well, it _is_ almost dinner time," Yang chuckled. She let go of her sister and stood up, "I'll let you get dressed and we can head to eat with the rest of the team."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Velvet nearly choked on her tea when Ruby clumsily brought the subject around to her swelling breasts. Not that she could really blame the young expecting mother, it _was_ technically the biggest thing going on in her life at the moment, and to her credit she didn't broadcast it to the rest of Vale...but on the other hand an open air cafe perhaps _wasn't_ the best place to have this conversation.

And the Faunus was actually having fun talking with her junior about the various weapons she'd copied, too….

"I mean…," Ruby continued as though Velvet _hadn't_ almost died, "I _know_ this is just my body getting ready for the baby, but it still feels...weird." She blushed and hesitantly met Velvet's gaze, "...do you think people will notice?"

Suddenly put on the spot Velvet struggled to come up with an answer. This clearly wasn't the same as what happened during puberty, when your body would just up and decide "Hey Velvet, from now on I'm going to give you mood swings and start bleeding once a month! #dealwithit LOL XD", _that_ Velvet could reasonably claim to have some experience with. Less so for popping your cherry and fighting back the urge to do it again, but in that case she could count on her friends and peers for a second opinion.

Having a little person growing inside you and your body playing havoc with things you thought you had under control? She might as well be lost without a map or a compass.

"...Has anyone mentioned that yet?" she eventually came up with, "I mean besides Dr. Nightengale."

Ruby shook her head. "No, but...what if they do and just aren't telling me?"

"Then I don't think it's as bad as you think." Velvet lowers her voice a little, "Your bras still fit, right?"

Nod. "Dr. Nightengale said I wouldn't need to worry about maternity clothes until the baby starts to show more."

Well, that was good, at least. Feeling a little curious, Velvet asked "So how far along are you?"

"Almost eleven weeks. Apparently I'm almost and the end of my first trimester." Ruby picked up her own cup of tea and blew on it a little. "And a lot of these symptoms should either stabilize or stop. At least, that's what Dr. Nightengale said."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

The thing about rumors is that, a majority of the time, it's nearly impossible to find the person who started it in the first place, because if it spreads enough the trail becomes so muddled that it would be easier to slay one of the legendary Grimm of old.

Not that it was stopping Cardin from doing his best to do just that. He may not be the nicest guy around, he was still a Huntsman (in training…), and there were some things he wouldn't stoop to doing, let alone tolerating others doing; if he was going to make someone miserable, it was going to be by his own hand, so to speak. Because the other thing about rumors is that they were hard to control, and he preferred to stay in control.

It wasn't easy at first, due to how widespread the "Hidden Rose" rumor has become by this point. Almost everyone he asked about ultimately said the same thing: "Dunno, I just heard about it from this it that person." The variations of this answer were wide, but that was what it usually boiled down to. Some of the older students he ended up asking actually gave him specifics of where they heard it from, so that was something. Unfortunately there wasn't enough to find a common ground in the few answers like that he managed to get.

"Man," Sky complained as Team CRDL flied out of Professor Port's class, "can that guy blow wind or what? How the crap does a chest full of _cake_ end up in the middle of southern Mistral anyway?"

"There are ways," answered Dove almost immediately, "none of them are plausible, but they exist."

"Dude, can you turn the Nerd off for, like, two seconds?" Russel reached over to smack Dove upside his head, only for the other boy to dodge out of the way effortlessly. "You're gonna give the rest of us a bad name!"

"You sure that wasn't _you_ when you got destroyed by that Thistle girl?" Sky shot back. He also dodged a particularly telegraphed swipe from Russel.

"Will all of you shut up for a second?" Cardin interjected, "I'm trying to think…."

"Don't hurt yourself, Boss!" quipped Sky, only to reel back a little from the sucked punch Cardin landed in his shoulder.

Fortunately the rest of his team picked up on the message and stopped talking, instead trying to slap each other as quietly as possible.

He wasn't making any headway remaining on his current course of action, basically going in circles. He needed a different angle to approach this from; most people here weren't found of him, he wasn't ignorant of that, and as such they typically weren't inclined to just _offer_ information to him without a little coercion on his part. It was looking like he needed to outsource this particular problem to someone who would handle this a lot more delicately than he would. Not to say he _couldn't_ be subtle, but it had been weeks now and he hadn't made any significant progress doing this the normal way.

As his team devolved into very sloppy wrestling Cardin pulled out his Scroll, quickly pulling up the number of another team leader he was more well liked, personable, and gossip hungry than he was.

Coco was probably more fashionable than he was too, but Fashion was going to trace the path of a rumor.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Ruby Rose, you come out from under those blankets _right now_ or so help me…!"

This was _not_ how Weiss imagined her morning starting; Ruby Rose, her partner and eponymous team leader, had discovered that she'd developed a pimple on her face, after which she'd buried herself under the covers and staunchly refused to come back out. Blake and Yang had already left in order to let teachers know why she and Ruby were held up.

 _Damn them for both picking 'rock', 'scissors' is_ clearly _the superior choice…._

" _...no!_ " came her muffled reply. " _I'm_ ugly _!_ "

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. "You're not 'ugly', it's just a small blemish; just put a little cover up on it and no one will notice."

" _Yes they will!_ " she protested, " _They'll notice, and Jaune won't love me anymore, and, and…._ " She trailed off, sniffling a little. " _...now I can never get married!_ "

A muffled "honk!" could be heard from the nest of blankets.

" _My life is_ over _!_ "

Sighing audibly, Weiss sat down next to her distraught leader. Ruby's shifting hormones or not, this was just ridiculous; she was smart enough to use protection when she and Jaune first started having sex with each other, that one fateful time aside (she shuddered a bit at the memory of Jaune in the buff) and she could stare down Grimm while barely batting an eye...but _this_ is what breaks her: one zit?

Then again, she honestly couldn't say she was too surprised by Ruby's current behavior. It sort of reminded her of her when they do at arrived at Beacon.

"Ruby…," she said, "if all it took for Jaune to stop loving was a blemish then, then I _highly_ doubt he would have stayed with you when he found out you were pregnant." She pauses for a moment. "Besides, he's too much of a dunce to be that shallow."

Another sniffle was Ruby's response.

"Look, you have to come out sooner or later-"

" _No I don't!_ "

"Let me finish: _or_ you'll start missing classes and get expelled, and I'm pretty sure you don't want that." She continued before Ruby could confirm her statement, "As for your marriageability, no _sane_ person would deny you that because of a zit, and while cane be an idiot sometimes, he's still perfectly sane." She patted the bundle of sheets, "And if for some reason you still believe that nonsense you were just spewing, we can always just ask him directly."

"... _isn't he in class now?_ "

"Yes, which is where _you_ should be as well." She gave the bundle a gently rub. "Come on," she said, adopting a gentler tone, "I'll put some cover on it and no one will even notice."

" _...promise?_ "

"Of course." She then proceeded to unwrap the sheets around her friend, "It's probably not even that-"

Weiss hadn't actually gotten a good look at when she came barreling out of their bathroom, but now that she did she could cut Ruby some slack.

"It's not...what?" the younger girl asked.

"Um, it's not...you're...the thing is…."

Weiss couldn't bring herself to describe the _monstrosity_ that currently blighted her leader's face, and Ruby's sad puppy expression wasn't helping matters.

 _Oh, drat me…._

"At least there's only the one," she decided on before getting up and making a beeline for her toiletries, digging out a small case. "This should clear it up in no time," she announced, returning with her prize.

"But, I thought you said-"

"Just hold still for a minute," Weiss ordered, cutting the question off, "it's better if we just deal with this now. Now this may sting a little…."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Jaune laid back, staring at the ceiling of Team CFVY's room, wondering why people would smoke after sex. He looked over at a sleeping Ruby hugging his arm; the act itself felt incredible, and while none of his family were smokers he knew that the practice wasn't good for you, so why did people say that? Why ruin the afterglow with something that smelled so bad?

He didn't dwell on this for long, his beautiful girlfriend and future mother's serene features pushing cigarettes out of his mind almost entirely. They'd both asked Coco- well...Ruby technically asked Velvet, but Coco was there at the time- if they could borrow CFVY's dorm so they wouldn't disturb their friends with their 'alone time', and because her Team was off on a mission or something she'd agreed on the condition that they bring their own bedding. He brushed a piece of hair out of her face.

Ruby really was a beautiful girl, and he was lucky that she liked him enough to want to be with him. Though it was _she_ who made the first move, he supposed is father's advice of "All you need is confidence" did indeed help with that a little; ever since coming to Beacon he'd become a more confident person, and he guessed Ruby must have noticed. He really ought to thank his dad at some point for the advi-

It suddenly dawned on him that it had been _months_ since he'd talked with any of his family, his siblings, back home, much less sent them a text or a letter or something to let them know he was alright. It was possible they saw him during the broadcast of the Vytal Festival Tournament, but even if that was the case he didn't want to take the chance they hadn't watch it.

" _I'm a dunce_ …," he sighed, once again staring up at the ceiling. Tomorrow he was going to sit down and write a letter to his sisters explaining everything they happened since he left home, and barring some freak Grimm invasion or other equally unlikely event he was going to get it done!

"Mmm...what was that?" Ruby moaned tiredly, one hand rubbing her eyes, "...you say something?"

"Nothing," he answered, "I was just...thinking about my family."

"...didn't you tell them about us already?" she asked, yawning slightly.

"...and the rest of your family?"

"I...haven't told them yet." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I, uh...haven't really actually _told_ my dad or my sisters that we're a couple. ...or that you're pregnant with my kid. ...or that I was bullied when I got into Beacon. ... _or_ that I got into Beacon in the first place-"

"You haven't told them _anything_?!" she exclaimed, rising up on her arms. "Jaune...when was the last time you saw your family?"

Jaune found that he couldn't look his girlfriend in the eye. "...the day before I left for Beacon?"

Even though she likely wasn't putting her full strength into her assault, it still hurt as she slapped his arm.

" _Oh my gawd, what is_ wrong _with you_? Why didn't you ever call them?"

"Because things were- Ow! Ruby, stop hitting me!" Fortunately for him she decided to cease smacking him and let him speak, pouting. "Look," he said, "I didn't exactly leave home under the best circumstances. Not 'bad', but they only found out I left for Beacon _after_ I left for Beacon." He sighed, "My sisters probably want to castrate me for up and leaving without telling any of them."

For a moment Ruby said nothing, her expression shifting between anger and pity. He briefly recalled her telling her father that she wanted their kid to grow up with both parents, so that was probably why she reacted so violently to him basically brushing his (and the his sisters by extension) off.

As if he wasn't _already_ feeling guilty about that….

Eventually she asked "Where's your Scroll?"

He gestured to his other side. "On the nightstand. Why do you-?"

He got his answer when Ruby immediately began crawling over him, stretching towards the nightstand and snatching his Scroll.

"H-hey!"

"You're calling your family," she said, her tone not leaving any room for argument, "You should've done this months ago!" She then began swiping through his contacts.

He tried to pry the device back, "Ruby, wait a-!"

"No! You're _not_ waiting any longer to do this! Don't you want our kid to have grandparents? Or Aunts?"

"No- Yes- ...just listen to me for a-!"

"Jaune, the more you make excuses the more you'll-"

" _We're both naked,_ " he interrupted. Ruby stopped struggling and allowed him to take his Scroll back, a look of embarrassed realization growing on her face. "Besides, it's the middle of the night; everyone's still gonna be asleep now."

She bopped her pointer fingers to get her sheepishly.

"...maybe we can put on some clothes first?"

"Look," he said as he tossed the Scroll back in the nightstand, bringing Ruby into a tender hug, "I'm not saying I don't want to tell my sisters about...all of this-" He gestured broadly. "-and I really was going to tell them, I promise, but can it please wait until we've both gotten some sleep first?"

Ruby looked apprehensive despite his assurance.

"Tell you what, tomorrow is your checkup with Dr. Nightengale, right?" She nodded. "How about after that we go to the CCT and give my family a proper call; that sound good?"

She nodded again, returning his hug and rested her head on his shoulder. "Yeah, that sounds good."

They both laid back down like this, and Jaune thought that he could get used to Ruby's presence next to him at night.

...once they graduated, this is; Weiss would probably lay into _both of them_ about this distracting them from their lessons or something like that.

 _to be continued…_

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _So this chapter was more a collection of vignettes do to the fact that it's pretty much meant to fill time until certain milestones in the narrative are reached. (One of which is coming up next chapter, so that's exciting!) It's also meant to move the "rumors" plot line forward- yes, I have plans for that- and me sort of retooling an aspect of how I was going to accomplish that goal; Cardin wasn't originally going to outsource some of his sleuthing, but it dawned on me that he'd probably have built up a reputation this far into the school year, and it probably wasn't a favorable one. Oh, and I wanted to focus on how Ruby's friends react to the different symptoms of her pregnancy, that too._

 _All that to say there were three different goals for me while I was writing this one._

 _Anyway, Weiss's vignette was particularly fun to write; I haven't done anything from her perspective apart from my fic "Stages" and a few scenes in "Distorted Mirror Images", so it was nice dip my toes into that again. (Maybe I'll do a future chapter from her perspective? We'll see how the story goes.) The ending of that was sort of inspired by the Chibi sketch where Weiss is judging an art competition._

 _To head off this line of potential questioning, yes, I'm making Cardin a lot more (comparably) likable than he is in the show in that he actually does have a sort of twisted code of honor that he follows. He'll still be a bully, don't worry, but now he'll do some stuff_ aside _from that as well._

 _Also, the next chapter should conclude this particular "arc" of the story, which I'm going to creatively call the "First Trimester", not_ at all _a reference to anything in real life and_ certainly _not relevant to_ anything _that might be happening within the story whatsoever!_

 _Y'all can't see it, but I'm totally doing the troll face right now._

 _And on the off chance you like what I do you can follow my Twitter ("at" the_layman215) where I sometimes post witty remarks and often retweet RWBY fanart, my YouTube channel (The Layman) where I make videos about RWBY, or keep an eye on my Twitch channel ("the_layman") where I play games which are then uploaded to YouTube. Also, fanfic updates sometimes show up on my Twitter, don't know how_ that _happens._

 _Next time...we're going to learn something about Ruby's pregnancy. Good, bad? Dunno, tune in to find out._


	13. Source is Uncovered

_An: Welcome to the second arc (pun not intended) of Accidents Happen! Just gonna get some housekeeping out of the way, then we can start following up on plot lines that were set up in the last part._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 **Soul is Manifested**

" _Honey, I'm home!" Jaune arc chimed as he stepped through the front door of his and Ruby's home. He just came from the Office, and he was looking forward to spending some quality time with his wife and kids. "Ruby, are you in the kitchen? Because something smells_ delicious _!"_

" _I'm baking cookies!" A moment later she emerged from the kitchen, wearing a pink, frilly apron (the words "Kiss the Cook" were written in a flowery script on the front); in one arm she was holding their baby girl Saffron, and in the other she held a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. She hopped on her toes to give him a peck on the cheek. "How was Work?"_

" _Oh, you know, same old same old." He gave her a kiss on top of her head in response. "How were the kids?"_

" _Perfect, like usual." She set the cookies down on the coffee table and called out "Jasper, Sunny! Come show daddy what you made!"_

 _The sounds of tiny feet could be heard running, and soon miniature versions of himself and Ruby were hugging his legs._

" _Daddy!"_

" _Come see what we made, Daddy!"_

" _We made you a picture!"_

" _Mommy helped!"_

" _Really?" He knelt down to their level, "I'd love to see it!"_

" _And that's not the_ only _thing we made today!" Ruby handed Saffron to him and reached behind the couch, pulling out another kid. "Say hi to Rowan!"_

" _Dad!" the young girl cried, leaping onto Jaune and hanging from his neck; the sudden, extra weight throwing him off balance._

" _Whoa!"_

" _And Ochre!" She held up another kid._

" _Daddy!"_

" _Oof!"_

" _And Cerise!"_

" _Daddy!"_

" _Wagh!"_

" _And Garnet!"_

" _Papa!"_

" _Ack!"_

 _Ruby continued to produce new children from seemingly thin air, tossing them to Jaune, and soon he became buried under a veritable mountain of kids that either resembled him and his loving wife. Before long the pile of kids grew so dense that Jaune was having trouble breathing, and it was steadily getting darker. As he was about to faint he could hear his father day "Don't worry, Son; all you need is confidence-"_

Jaune jerked awake in a cold sweat, panting heavily as his awareness slowly came back to him. His chest still felt tight, but ever so slowly the sensation of suffocating lessened as he became more and more awake; he hadn't been plagued by nightmares since he was still in primary school, and even so, this one was weird.

Not to mention that it didn't make any sense. Oh, he could follow the strangely lucid narrative of it just fine, the _problem_ was exactly _why_ he was imagining himself being smothered by millions of potential kids. He was excited for his first child! ...right?

Of course he was, why wouldn't he be? Childbirth was something beautiful, and now he was part of that process. And if he was being completely honest, he _kinda_ really enjoyed the whole "procreation" part, and was excited to try it again with his sexy girlfriend.

 _Well_...she _had_ looked pretty cute in that apron….

Ruby suddenly shifted in the bed next to him, trailing her hand down his body with a soft groan, and made him realize just exactly _how_ excited he was getting.

However, before he could think about it for too long (and potentially come up with a way to safely relieve himself), Ruby lashed out and grabbed his arm, holding onto it for dear life as her eyes flew open in shocked surprise.

"Um...good morning?" he said, hesitantly, unsure exactly how to respond to this new development.

"Jaune…," she said, traces of sleep still in her voice, "...I can feel it!"

"S-sorry!" The apology was more reflexive than anything, considering the appearance his morning wood just made. "I-I can turn over if you-"

"I can _feel_ it," she repeated (apparently heedless to his apology), her expression morphing from shock to joyous elation, "I can feel my baby's soul!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"...OK, you're _way_ too happy!" Weiss noted later that day. Team RWBY were currently sitting in Professor Port's class, the mustachioed Huntsman going on about "the one in the hole" or something equally not related to the lesson at hand. "It's starting to creep me out."

"I can't help it!" Ruby said, a happy, stupid smile on her face, one hand resting gently on her stomach, "My baby is _alive_ , Weiss! This is _awesome_!"

"Yeah Ice Queen, you should be happy for your partner!" Yang made a mock pleading gesture at the heiress, "After all, this just means there'll be another cute thing for Auntie Weiss to dote on; don't you want a kid to spoil?"

"Th-that's not the point!" Weiss deflected, not even bothering to deny the claim. "What I'm saying is that she's been… _different_ since this morning, and I don't just mean in the way she usually is after she and Jaune spend a night together. And stop calling me 'Ice Queen'!"

It was at this point that Blake looked up from the book she was reading (Port was too long winded even for her tastes). "No, this actually makes sense."

This got a raised eyebrow from the others. "What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"It's been about four months since the baby was conceived, right?"

Ruby gave an uncertain nod. "I think so...Dr. Nightengale would probably know for sure."

Blake continued. "Then it makes sense that you'd start seeing signs like this; my mom used to help at our local clinics with this kind of stuff, so…."

Ruby looked down at her stomach, once again reaching out with her own soul to touch her child's, and once again Joy threatened to explode for her; it was so soft, and pure, and... _clean,_ and just the most perfect thing in the whole wide world, as far as she was concerned. It actually took some effort to not let her emotions overwhelm her.

"...do you guys wanna feel?" she asked, looking back up at her Team, "I don't mind."

Yang was the first one to take up the offer, nodding and placing a hand next to Ruby's. "Wow!...it's been awhile since I've done this."

"Weiss, Blake, you guys can do it to." Ruby took her partner's hesitantly outstretched hand and guided it to her stomach, resting it next to Yang's.

"...are you sure this is safe?" Weiss asked, "It's not going to harm the child?"

" _Yes,_ " everyone said, Blake adding her hand to the mix. "Trust me, it's perfectly safe," she added.

"You know…," Yang said after a short while, "...it just dawned on me that I can still remember doing this for Ruby before she was born." A complicated expression cane over her face, "Not quite sure how to feel about that…."

"How does Jaune feel about this?" Blake asked, "I assume he wanted to do this when he found out?"

The brightness in Ruby's face dimmed a little at the question. "He tried, but apparently he can't 'Aura well', as he put it. He said he'd get Ren and Pyrrha to teach him about this so he could, though."

"It's so...new!" Weiss marveled. Her eyes looked a bit more watery now, "It's... _amazing_!"

"I know, right?" Ruby couldn't help herself from grinning.

Soon the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

"...and that's how the _seventh_ Edgar passed away," Professor Port pontificated, "quite tragic, really, given how I'd only just- oh, I suppose we'll just have to continue the rest next time. _And remember, there_ will _be an object lesson next time, so be prepared for that!_ "

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Later…._

Ruby sat with Yang in Dr. Nightengale's office, waiting for the results of Ruby's latest checkup; Team JNPR still has one more class before the end of the day, otherwise Jaune would be with the two sisters.

They fortunately didn't have to wait for very long- maybe ten minutes at most- before the cerulean haired woman returned with clipboard in hand.

"Is Ruby OK?" Yang blurted immediately.

Lea chuckled a little. "Don't worry, Miss Xiao-Long, Ruby and her child are both doing fine. In fact, your sister is doing remarkably well for someone her age in this position." She pulled over the room's stool and sat down, flipping up a couple leafs of the papers on the clipboard, "Your baby appears to be slightly ahead of schedule, according to these results."

Neither girl really knew what that meant. "...is that...bad?" Ruby asked.

"I don't believe so," the doctor shook her head, "at least, not this soon; it just means the baby hit something of a growth spurt. Tell me, have people been complimenting you on how you look recently?"

The question took Ruby aback slightly, having seemingly come from out of nowhere. She thought back to earlier that day. "Well...I _guess_ some people said I looked nice…."

"Are you kidding? She's been practically _radiant_ since this morning!" Yang exclaimed. "I mean she usually glows after she and Jaune spend the night together, but this is ridiculous!"

" _YAAANG_!"

"What, you do; everyone can tell!"

"Ladies!" Dr. Nightengale interjected, "As I was getting at, it's right around the twelve week point where the child's soul begins to manifest, a side effect of this being a more intense pregnancy glow, and while not everyone reacts exactly the same a general sense of euphoria is typical at this point for most of the women I've seen." She handed the girls one of the papers, "This is a map of how a typical human pregnancy usually progresses, and at this point Ruby should just be near the end of her first trimester."

Both girls studied the chart intently.

"Um...what's this red part mean?" Ruby asked, turning the paper around and pointing to a red colored bar that ran under the end of the chart.

"That's the general window for when childbirth happens, the doctor explained, "Right around the middle is the predicted nine month target, and the ends are for pre- and post-mature births, respectively."

Ruby nodded and studied the chart again.

"Also," she continued, "while many of your symptoms should disappear over the next couple weeks, you'll most likely start to feel more hungry and have food cravings now that you're eating for two, and certain smells may still make you nauseous." She set the clipboard down, "And I'd like to start scheduling regular ultrasound sessions going forward."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"How often?" Jaune asked as Teams RWBY and JNPR were hanging out in Beacon's library; he was currently letting his girlfriend lounge on his lap as she read her comic book.

"She said no later than once every two weeks, or to come in if I thought anything happened." Ruby turned the page, a smiled creeping its way into her face, "I don't know, I think I'm actually kinda excited about this!"

"Really?"

"Mmhmm! It's just...exciting! I don't know how else to explain it!" She nuzzled into the crook of his neck, giggling as Jaune pretended to shove her away.

Pyrrha looked on while they were acting cutesy, fighting to keep herself from letting out the monstrous sigh that was building. It was honestly getting pretty annoying now; did they _really_ need to be obnoxiously lovey-dovey all the time? She understood couples liked to be affectionate with each other, but really, there were limits. It's not like a little restraint was too much to ask for, was it?

Despite her annoyance Pyrrha didn't hate Ruby. Sure the younger girl was supernaturally energetic, and perky, and so sweet she could give people diabetes upon contact, and... _with Jaune_...and carrying his child...but she didn't _hate_ her. "Hate" was a strong word, it was more accurate to say that...she wasn't particularly fond of the 15 year old girl at present, though she couldn't really place why. It wasn't like Ruby _actively_ tried to antagonize her, nor did she rub it in her face that she missed her chance with Jaune, or act smug; in fact, Pyrrha wasn't entirely sure Ruby had a smug bone in her body. Still, the feelings of immense dislike persisted, the young champion wishing her leader and his…' _girlfriend_ ' would be a bit more subtle with their affections.

" _-Remnant to Cereal Box, hello?_ "

Pyrrha quickly looked back to the rest of her group- She, Yang, Ren and Nora were all playing Remnant: The Game while Ruby and Jaune read together; Blake and Weiss were elsewhere- broke from her musings by Yang's waving. "Yes, Yang?"

"You were spacing out again," the blonde pointed out, "Also, we only have _one_ set of these cards."

"What you do-" She glanced down and saw that the cards she was holding were starting to bend. "Oh, s-sorry!"

"You OK there, Pyrrha?" Nora ask as Pyrrha tried to smooth the playing cards out again, "Cuz you've been spacing out _a lot_ lately." She leaned towards her redheaded teammate, "...you don't _look_ sick-"

She was immediately pulled back by Ren. "Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?" he asked. Yang put her cards down and focused on Pyrrha as well.

Suddenly put on the spot, Pyrrha found she couldn't quite form words. Or rather, all desire to talk pretty much evaporated once everyone's attention was on her. "It's nothing, really!" She then took one of her (slightly bent) cards and played it face up. "Let's continue the game; I'm going to attack Vacuo with my Fearless Legion." She grabbed the dice, intent on rolling them.

Yang gently grabbed her arm before she could. "Look, I don't know if Ruby's noticed, but you only get this way whenever the lovebirds over there-" She cocked her head at Jaune and her sister, who were now completely engrossed in the comic they were reading. (Something about a summer camp…?) "-are being cutesy, and I know Ruby doesn't want to cause trouble...but if there's something going on between you and my baby sister…." She let the sentence hang, looking intently into Pyrrha's green eyes.

"Well…," she fidgeted, rubbing her arm, "It's...it's not really anything Ruby's done-"

"You're upset that she stole Jaune from you," Ren interrupted. Pyrrha's eye briefly went wide, and Nora smacked Ren on the arm.

" _Ren…!_ "

"Am I wrong?" he asked, ignoring his partner's blow.

"Well…," Pyrrha said hesitantly, her mind trying to refute the accusation. "It's just that…." Eventually, under the knowing looks from Yang and Ren (and Nora's look of pity) she let out a defeated sigh. "...have I been that obvious?"

"Obvious enough," Ren replied. "I feel we've all known you long enough to pick up on when you're acting differently."

"Except for Jaune and Ruby, apparently," Nora added. "Go figure."

"That aside," Yang continued, "Why not just tell Ruby how you feel? I guarantee she'd understand where you're coming from, and it would probably clear the air between you two."

Pyrrha sighed and leaned her arms on the table. "You're right, it probably would, but...I just can't help but think 'that should be _me_ with him' whenever I see the two of them together." She paused for a moment. "I've never felt this...angry at someone before, and I don't want to accidentally do something to cause Ruby distress or harm the child. ...If I'm being completely honest, I'm not sure I even _want_ her to know how I feel."

The three teens could immediately tell that if Pyrrha held true to her admission it would soon blossom into a serious issue down the line, with both Jaune and Blake going through similar experiences before.

"OK look-" Yang started to say, only to be cut off when a familiar and infamous student slammed his hand down in the middle of the table, causing them all the start in shock and messing up the placement of most of the game board.

"Sup, losers," Cardin said, leaning casually on his arm, "having fun?"

"We _were_ ," Nora all but growled. "What do you want, Winchester?"

"We were kind of in the middle of something," Ren added. Yang opted to simply glare at the boy.

"Geez, really feeling the love here," he quipped. "But maybe you'll feel differently when you learn who started that rumor about Little Red."

This got everyone's attention immediately, including Ruby and Jaune, who dropped the comic and hurried over to the table.

"You have…?" asked a now slightly apprehensive Pyrrha.

" _How_?" Yang wondered, "And how do we know you're not just trying to deflect blame from yourself?"

" _Yeah_!"

"Ask Coco; she basically confirmed it for me," he said. "Not gonna lie, I wouldn't have put as much effort into this if I bothered putting any stock in rumors; they're about as easy to control as a wild Deathstalker. You guys better appreciate the trouble I went through for the love birds there." He jerked his thumb at Ruby and Jaune.

"So then who was it?" Jaune asked. His and Ruby's faces mirrored each other with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. "I can't think of anyone we know who would say something like this about us."

Cardin smirked. "Actually," he gave a small chuckle, "you _do_ know them. Quite well, in fact."

Suddenly, Nora slammed her hands down in the table (further messing up the game board in the process), her look of almost manic excitement contrasting the somber mood. "Enough with the games, Winchester! Either tell who started this, or there'll be _two_ sets of legs getting broken instead of one!"

" _Nora_!"

"Dammit, Nora…."

"Nora, please!"

"...well-" Cardin raises an eyebrow at the threat, "-since you put it so nicely...why don't you just ask her yourself?" He put a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, who flinched, leaning in so he was at eye level with her and asked her directly "Or do you want to just tell them how and save them the extra step?"

The embarrassed flush on Pyrrha's face at Cardin's revelation only served to lend credence to her guilt.

"... _Pyrrha_?" Ruby said, the first one to break the awkward silence, "Did- ...did you really…?"

Needless to say, Pyrrha had a difficult time looking up from the floor.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Wow, what a way to start 2018, isn't it? Well, I'm back working on this fic, so expect more shenanigans from Preggers Ruby & The Gang in the coming year! _

_And yes, I've been sowing the seeds of this revelation for a while now, and will go into this more next chapter. (Hopefully I'll have more to say at the end of these things going forward.)_

 _(Also, be sure to check me out on the social medias! You can find the handles in the previous chapters.)_


	14. Bump is Showing

"Mmhmm," Yang nodded, "yeah...yeah...uh huh...thanks Coco, sorry to bother you." She then ended the call and tucked her Scroll into her pocket. "Well, Coco basically confirmed that Cardin isn't making this up; you can let him back up now, Nora."

" _Fine_!..." she groused, hopping off of Cardin. "Congratulations _Winchester_ , your kneecaps get to live another day."

He grumbled something that may have been " _Thanks…"_ and rubbed the spot on his back where Nora briefly took up residence. "I told you I wasn't making it up."

"You'll forgive us for not believing you about this." Out of everyone here Ren kept the coolest head over the news. He understood why Yang and his partner practically jumped on Cardin like they had, and why Ruby ran out of the library with tears in her eyes (Jaune had warned the rest of Team JNPR of what pregnancy hormones would do) and why he'd immediately ran after her; he liked to think he knew all of them fairly well after being friends for well over half a year.

Pyrrha on the other hand was more of an enigma in this case. She never struck him as the kind of person to spread such a hurtful rumor like this, let alone do it behind someone's back; in all the time he'd know her she seemed like a genuinely decent person. Granted he only knew her by reputation before coming to Beacon, so it was entirely possible this _was_ in her character and the opportunity to engage in the act had simply never come up until now. However, he wasn't one to jump to conclusions and would give her a fair chance to explain herself, since it was equally as possible this could all just be a misunderstanding.

Still, this _did_ explain how she knew exactly what rumor Ruby's father was talking about when the man came to visit that one time….

"In the interest of not sitting on anyone else," he addressed the young athlete, quickly shooting a warning glance at Nora for good measure, "perhaps you should explain why Cardin is accusing you of this?"

A look of solemn resignation flashed across Pyrrha's face as she laid her cards on the table (it was clear at this point that the game wasn't going to continue) and hesitantly lifted her gaze up to the rest of them.

"Cardin's right, it _is_ my fault this rumor got started," she began, "but I swear it was an accident; I would _never_ deliberately say something so slanderous about my friends, even if-!" She stopped suddenly, closing her eyes and exhaling a large breath before she continued. "It was before Jaune took Ruby on that date to _Gavino_ ' _s_ …."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Like most people who attended Professor Port's class Pyrrha was only mildly paying attention to the mustachioed Huntsman while her mind wandered elsewhere. It wasn't that he was uninteresting, even if he tended to be long winded more often than not, but at the moment her mind had other things to worry about than a teacher's (most likely) exaggerated exploits of his career._

 _Namely, did Jaune and Ruby absolutely_ have _to cuddle every waking moment they were together? She understood that they were now officially a couple and had..._ made love _with each other, but that didn't mean they needed to rub everyone's noses in that fact by constantly being all lovey-dovey._

She _wouldn't be so obnoxious…._

" _...to illustrate that point, I'll need a volunteer," Port said, his eyes scanning the gathered students._

 _Normally Pyrrha was content to let others participate in Port's object lessons, reserving her energy for Mrs. Goodwitch's class when she'd fight against someone who knew what they were doing, but_ any _distraction from the_ very _public display of affection was welcome, so she added her hand to the mix._

" _Let's see here...ah, Miss Rose, you seem in eager spirits today. How about you?"_

 _Pyrrha looked back over at her team leader and saw that Ruby was waving her hand around like an energetic toddler who was just asked if they wanted a cookie. (Which, honestly, wasn't entirely inaccurate….) She nodded and made her way down to the floor, all the while Pyrrha couldn't help but wonder 'why?'._

 _Why was it that everyone seemed to be giving Ruby special treatment? By the girl's own admission, wasn't she just a normal girl with normal knees? It seemed like ever since Ruby and Jaune came out as a couple three weeks ago people had been going out of their way to be nice to her, or say how pretty she looked today but they couldn't put their finger on why, or point out how cute the two of them looked together…._

"Why is she even here…?" _she mused as she watched Ruby take on a Boarbatusk which Professor Port assured was "still Edgar"._

" _Why is who here?" someone asked from behind her; apparently Pyrrha had said that last part out loud. She turned back to address the other student directly._

" _Ruby, the girl fighting," she explained, trying not to let the annoyance she felt slip through in her voice, "I was wonder how she made it into Beacon."_

 _The other student shrugged, "The same as the rest if us, I guess?"_

" _No, she's only fifteen," Pyrrha shook her head, "she would have had to wait two more years to apply normally; more likely she did something that impressed Professor Ozpin enough that he offered her early admission." She then sighed, "I'm sorry, but I would like to pay attention to the lecture." She tried not to sound rude as she turned her attention back to the fight; it wasn't the student's fault she'd been talking to herself loud enough for them to overhear. Still, she wasn't fond of talking about 'Jaune's girlfriend' at the moment, and so decided to try actually listening to Professor Port's tall tales._

 _At least those were guaranteed not to be about Ruby…._

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"...I didn't realize until Ruby was accosted a few days later that the student I spoke with took my words out of context," Pyrrha concluded, "and by then, well…." She glanced up at the rest of them, her eyes heavy with remorse. "I honestly didn't mean for things to reach the state they did."

"I believe you," Ren said. Now that Pyrrha had explained what happened he could understand how things spiraled to the point that they had.

"You know, now that I think about it…," Yang wagged her finger as her face lit up in recognition, "...you were the only person to accuse one of us of snitching when 'that' happened!"

"Yeah! You were- wait, what about Weiss?" Nora wondered, "I thought _she_ thought Jaune said something."

Yang shook her head. "She did, but that doesn't really count; in that kind of situation the boyfriend is _always_ the prime suspect," she explained.

"Ohhh…!" Nora said, nodding as a switch in her brain flipped.

"Anyway…." Yang turned back to Pyrrha, looking at her with an expression he vaguely remembered his mother giving him when he got scolded, "Pyrrha, once Ruby calms down a little I think you should go apologize."

"I will…," the red headed girl apologized, sighing, "I should know more than anyone what it's like to be the victim of an unfounded rumor."

Right, Pyrrha was famous. He'd gotten so used to her presence that he honestly sometimes forgot her face was on a cereal box.

"...I haven't exactly been handling this maturely, have I?" she wondered, sheepishly looking between the three of them.

"Not particularly."

"Nope."

" _Totally_ not!" they answered in turn.

"I'm gonna go with 'no' on that, too," Cardin interjected, "I don't even know what you've been doing and I agree with these guys."

"Why are you still here?" Nora didn't so much ask as forcefully demand, "Shouldn't you be off bullying some Faunus kid?" Yang added her own no nonsense look in Cardin's direction for good measure.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention, I think we should be able to handle it from here." Ren said, giving a small nod. Cardin may be a scoundrel and a bully (on no uncertain terms), but he had apparently gone out of his way to uncover the origins of the rumor about Ruby, and from what Ren could tell he hadn't done this solely to give either JNPR or RWBY grief.

Also, never let it be said that Cardin couldn't take the hint when he wasn't wanted.

"Fine, I get it, I'm leaving," he announced, making his way to the doors, "I did my good deed for today. Not that it wouldn't be fun to watch the cat fight between Nikos and Rose, but I've got more important things to do."

Once Cardin was gone Yang pulled out her Scroll again and began typing a message. "I'm gonna let Weiss and Blake know about this," she informed them.

"Good idea." Ren starting packing up the game, "I think we're going to retire for the evening, give things a chance to cool down."

"But what about Ruby?" asked Nora, "Pyrrha should apologize before-"

"It's fine, Nora," the Huntress in question interrupted, "I will offer my apology for starting this off tomorrow; Ruby deserves a chance to calm down, plus I'm probably the last person she wants to see with her emotions running hot like this." She looked to Yang for confirmation, who briefly looked up from her text to nod in agreement.

As Nora proceeded to lean over Yang's shoulder and offer criticism on her summary of events, Ren let out a mental sigh of relief that he didn't have any crazy relationship drama in his own life to deal with.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Later…._

Ruby once again stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, naked save for her underwear. After running (jogging, really) halfway across Beacon Jaune had convinced her to stop and rest, assuring her that Pyrrha wouldn't knowingly slander someone like that. Then, after cuddling for a while, they were found by Weiss and Blake, who escorted them back to their rooms and explained that Pyrrha was indeed sorry for what she'd unknowingly done. She had just weighed herself, a slightly scary prospect since she started eating differently due to her pregnancy related nausea.

She stood profile to the mirror, trying to hold in her gut to get a better picture of her figure. She turned to the other side after a minute.

...yep, what had once been a relatively flat (albeit slightly doughy) stomach now had a decently sized bump in the middle of it. Granted, it wasn't that noticeable when she had her uniform or her combat outfit on, which was probably why she hadn't noticed until Jaune hugged her before heading into his own room ten minutes ago, but without cloth and fabric getting in the way….

Come to think of it, that chart Dr. Nightengale gave them said that right around now was when the "baby bump" started to form, hadn't it?

"Yang?" she called, gathering up her nightwear, "...do I look fat?"

She could make out _three_ audible groans from the other side if the door.

" _You look_ fine _!"_ Weiss answered, " _You have nothing to worry about; if that dolt across the hall said you looked fat-"_

" _Why do you want to know?"_ Yang interrupted the heiress, sounding less exasperated than Weiss had.

She didn't answer immediately, instead opting to show her team what she meant. (She decided she didn't mind getting changed in the room, they were all girls after all.) "Because I think I'm starting to show now," she said, closing the bathroom door behind her. She turned to the side to better illustrate her point.

Blake was the first of her team to speak up. "It's not that bad; it looks about what I remember it's supposed to at this stage." She walked over and placed a hand on her leader's belly, and Ruby could feel her reaching out to the baby, "Nothing's wrong with the baby, for the record."

"I honestly didn't notice until you pointed it out just now," Weiss admitted, "I get that it'll be harder to hide your baby bump the later it gets, but for now no one should make too big a deal of it."

Not for the first time Ruby thought she was lucky to have gotten a partner like Weiss; even though she could be an ice queen sometimes the heiress was also steadfast and, in her own way, caring. And she'd been a _huge_ help throughout her pregnancy so far, going out of her way to bring her assignments she'd missed because of morning sickness, been a shoulder to cry when got too emotional (such as when they went to see "Shades of the Heart" that one time and she went through fifteen boxes of tissues by the end of the flick), and had even chewed out students on her behalf a couple times when she caught them talking about that nasty rumor Pyrrha apparently started by accident. Even now, she could feel the tears welling up at how understanding Weiss was being at her situation.

"Thanks, Weiss." On reflex she tried to wipe the building tears from her eye. Her finger cane back dry; the waterworks hadn't quite started yet.

"Don't worry about it," Yang said as she came over to join Blake, squeezing Ruby in a quick hug, "we'll always be here for you, even Dad, especially when you turn into a balloon in a few months."

" _Yaaaang_!" Ruby gave her sister a smack on the shoulder, scowling at her as the blonde chuckled. "Stop being such a butt!"

"Make me!~" her sister retorted, playfully sticking out her tongue.

Things calmed down after a few more minutes of light ribbing, and as Ruby changed into her nightwear (she might need to ask Weiss if she could borrow some of her nightgowns soon…) she thought back to Pyrrha's confession- ...well, the other girl hadn't outright _denied_ that she was responsible for the rumor, but the guilty look on her face when she'd been accused by Cardin had all but confirmed it.

"...does Pyrrha still like me?" she asked to no one in particular.

" _Of course_ she does," Weiss answered almost immediately from the top bunk, "Just because she may have accidentally started a rumor doesn't mean she's stopped being friends with you. Why do you ask?"

"Well...I think I may have stolen Jaune from her…." She'd had a lot of time to herself to think due to morning sickness often confining her to bed most mornings, and every so often her thoughts would gravitate to Pyrrha's relationship with Jaune. For a while she'd just assumed Pyrrha was just a really close friend with Jaune like she was with her sister; it never dawned on her that the champion girl had any more feelings than those. After all, she and Jaune never even kissed (a tiny part of her was glad for some reason about that) or gone on dates or done any of the usual things Yang said people did when they were in love. On a second glance, however, things started to become clear: the longing looks Pyrrha sometimes sent in Jaune's direction, their evening training sessions they did before bed, all the seemingly random acts of kindness that Pyrrha always played off as "not a big deal"...she'd basically been saying "I love you" without actually saying those words out loud. And Ruby had been just as oblivious as Jaune had all those months.

And now, with the revelation that she'd pretty much did nothing to quell the rumor she accidentally started….

"I don't think so," the heiress said after a minute, "true, it was plain as day she had feelings for Jaune, but if she didn't act on those feelings then she missed her chance with him."

Maybe to Weiss it was plain as day, but before she started having feelings for Jaune she didn't even pick up on the hints Weiss dropped that she wanted to be paired with Neptune when they and half of Team SSSN were looking for clues about the White Fang way back when.

She hoped Weiss didn't suddenly remember and point that out.

"I'm sure she understands you aren't as petty as to go out of your way to steal the object of her affections," Weiss continued, "Even if she's not happy about it, she chose to be passive about winning him, so she has no right to complain if he ends up with someone else. In this case, you."

"Besides," Yang chimed in, "you were just as oblivious about Pyrrha's crush on Jaune as _he_ was; didn't you crack up at the idea of Weiss and Neptune being together that one time?"

The shield shaped pillow that hit Yang's face was not thrown by Ruby, but by an annoyed looking Weiss; her eyes were closed, brow furrowed, and one of her eyebrows twitched every couple seconds. "That nearly gave me whiplash…."

"Sorry!" Ruby cried, the apology coming automatically.

"Here's the thing, Rubes…." Yang tossed the pillow up to her own bunk and sat in the edge of Ruby's, motioning for her sister to do the same. "Even if Pyrrha seems mad at you- and from her perspective you basically went ' _Yoink he's mine now git güd sucker lol'-_ deep down she knows you aren't that kind of person." She playfully mussed up Ruby's hair, "You're a dorky kid who likes people's weapons and can't help who she fell in love with."

" _YaaAAANG!"_ Ruby wailed, batting her sister's hand away. _Seriously, Yang is such a_ butt _sometimes…._

"Just give Pyrrha some time," Blake finally spoke up, looking up from her book, "Trust me, I know how difficult it is when you miss your chance with the person you care about."

"Personal experience?" wondered Weiss, to which her Faunus teammate have a tiny shrug.

"Something like that…."

Ruby had an idea what Blake meant by that, but refrained from bringing it up; if she was thinking was she thought she was thinking, Blake wouldn't appreciate having such a sore subject brought up again.

"So don't worry!" Yang assured her, giving her shoulder a nudge, "I bet by next week thing will be right as rain now that this situation is cleared up!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

 _Heyo! I'm not dead yet! And neither is this story! (More on that in a second.)_

 _Sorry about the wait for this chapter, but a couple things happened that sort of shoved "Accidents Happen" to the back burner: 1. I've been making an effort to put more focus on my YouTube channel (and there with be a series of Fanfiction related videos coming out soon, so keep an eye on that), and 2. I started another story called "These Silent Hills…." which shouldn't take too long to complete its run before I shift focus back to this fic, so go give that one a look._

 _Plugs aside, this chapter should hopefully shed some light on how the rumor about Ruby sleeping her way into Beacon got started. That being quite accidentally, in keeping with the theme of the story. Which isn't to say Pyrrha's completely blameless in this (hopefully that came through in the writing), but she'll_ probably _be more carefully in what she says from now on, at least in regards to her crush's paramour._

 _Also, this is the second time I've written a scene from Ren's perspective, which is an interesting challenge. He's a very "speak softly" type of character, (though this is lessened somewhat post Vol.4, and is all but dropped in Chibi), and always struck me as someone who makes a lot of unspoken observations, so in a sense he makes a decent impartial 3rd part POV. That said he's still his own person, so there's a danger of turning him into an exposition bot, which I think I managed to avoid._

 _This sort of got overshadowed by the whole "It was Pyrrha in the Classroom with the thoughtless comment" thing, but now Ruby's baby bump is starting to show. How will this affect her social standing in Beacon? Will Thistle Raine ever show up in this fic again? Will Taiyang ever find love online using Cinder(TM)? HAVE I ALREADY USED THIS JOKE BEFORE? Tune in next time to find out!_

 _...which may be a while, as detailed in the above information._

 _Anywho, follow me on Twitter " the_layman215" for progress reports on everything I'm doing, on YouTube for RWBY vlogs and other videos, on Twitch "the_layman" for vidja gaems, and feel free to leave a little something for me on Pa treon "The Layman" to help motivate me to write more._


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